The Little Rock Nine and Brown v. Board of Education

On the 4th September 1957, nine African - American children became the first black kids to attend Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. Little Rock Central High School was an all-white public school and so it was very controversial for children of any other race to attend it. These nine children were:
  • Minnijean Brown,
  • Elizabeth Eckford,
  • Ernest Green,
  • Thelma Mothershed,
  • Melba Patillo,
  • Gloria Ray,
  • Terrence Roberts,
  • Jefferson Thomas and 
  • Carlotta Walls.
and they became known as the 'Little Rock Nine'.

This first attempt to enter the school unfortunately failed, white supremacists and other extreme far - right citizens were at the school to try to block the children into entering the building, and they succeeded, this included two pro - segregation groups: The Capital Citizens Council and the Mother's League of Central High School. As well as this, Orval Faubus had summoned the Arkansas Nation Guard to prevent the students from entering the school. He had suggested on national television that allowing black children to come to school with white children would only result in violence and bloodshed. For weeks to come the little rock nine would continue to attempt entering the school until they finally could when President Dwight D. Eisenhower called in federal troops to assist the Little Rock Nine into school grounds. They had their first full day of classes on the 25th of September, 21 days after they initially planned to start. These nine students were chosen by Daisy Bates, president of the Arkansas NAACP at the time. They were chosen as they had the grades, courage , determination and the right attitude to do what would be a very hard task. All nine children even had to go through intensive counselling weeks prior to their first attempt, to prepare for the hate that would come with doing something so legendary.  

This event was backed by the supreme court case that is 'Brown v. Board of Education'. This landmark lawsuit was started after Oliver Brown filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education of Topeka in Kansas when his daughter (Linda) was denied a place at all of Topeka's all white schools. It called for the desegregation of all schools in America as Brown made a point that schools for black kids were not as good quality or as safe as those for white kids. He believed that segregation violated the 'equal protection clause' of the 14th Amendment. Judges agreed with this and unanimously ruled on the 17th May 1954 that racial segregation of children attending public high schools were unconstitutional and this began the future of having poc and white children in the same schools. Brown v. Board of Education was a big part of the civil rights movement and it helped to raise the point that 'separate but equal' education/other sectors of things were really not equal at all.

This idea of things being 'separate but not equal' came after a lawsuit in 1896 which stated that racial segregation was legal as long as white and black people could still have equal access to different places. This idea stood for the next 60 years.

All nine students had their positive experiences but also had to face a lot of hardship in attending the school. Not only were the Little Rock Nine forbidden to participate in outside activities, they were beaten, spat on, pushed down stairs and even burnt with acid. Brown was even expelled in 1958 when she tried to defend herself from these actions. The students parents were even affected with Gloria's mother losing her job as a result of her not pulling Gloria from out the school. The national guard had to stay at Central High School for the rest of the year.

One thing that brought a lot of attention to the nine children was a photo of Elizabeth Eckford being harassed by white protesters. On the day of this photo, Eckford had come into school herself as she and her family were not aware of the carpool that had been organised for the other 8 children. 

After all this, the story of the little rock nine is still an influential one. They are truly remarkable people. Most went onto distinguished careers and were each awarded the congressional gold medal in 1999 by Bill Clinton.

As a matter of fact, all are still alive today except from Jefferson Thomas who passed in 2020 aged 67 (may he rest in peace).

And so we continue to look back, reflect and improve on our own society now.

Thank you for reading,

Princess.

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