Little Rock Nine Notes

 

Little Rock Nine

·         group of African American high-school students who challenged racial segregation in the public schools of Little Rock, Arkansas

·         consisting of Melba Pattillo, Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Minnijean Brown, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls, Jefferson Thomas, Gloria Ray, and Thelma Mothershed

·         they first tried to enter in summer 1957

·         Nine attended segregated schools for black students in Little Rock (Pulaski County). Carlotta Walls, Jefferson Thomas, and Gloria Ray attended Paul Laurence Dunbar Junior High School, while Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Thelma Mothershed, Terrence Roberts, Minnijean Brown, and Melba Pattillo attended Horace Mann High School.

·         September 4, 1957, the Nine attempted to enter Central but were turned away by Arkansas National Guard troops called out by the governor.

·         The Nine remained at home for more than two weeks

·         Eisenhower called out 1,200 members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division—the “Screaming Eagles” of Fort Campbell, Kentucky—and placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal orders. On September 25, 1957, under federal troop escort, the Nine were escorted back into Central for their first full day of classes.

·         Although all of the Nine endured verbal and physical harassment during their year at Central, Minnijean Brown was the only one to respond; she was first suspended and then expelled for retaliating against the daily torment by dropping her lunch tray with a bowl of chili on two white boys and, later, by referring to a white girl who hit her as “white trash.”

·         May 27, 1958, Ernest Green became Central’s first black graduate. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. attended his graduation ceremony. Green later told reporters, “It’s been an interesting year. I’ve had a course in human relations first hand.” The other eight, like their counterparts across the district, were forced to attend other schools or take correspondence classes the next year when voters opted to close all four of Little Rock’s high schools to prevent further desegregation efforts.

·         December 1959, the Supreme Court ruled that the school board must reopen the schools and resume the process of desegregating the city’s schools.

·         in 1958 the Little Rock Nine were honored with the NAACP’s highest honor, the Spingarn Medal

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Bibliography

1.       Jaynes G., Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2016, Little Rock Nine https://www.britannica.com/topic/Little-Rock-Nine (accessed Monday, 21 November 2016).

2.       The Central Arkansas Library System 2010, Little Rock Ninehttp://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=723 (accessed Monday, 21 November 2016).

3.       King Center (n.d.), Little Rock School Desegregation (1957) http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_little_rock_school_desegregation_1957/(accessed Monday, 21 November 2016).