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The Case That Paved the Way for Little Rock Nine.

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The Case That Paved the Way for Little Rock Nine.

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The Brown V. Board of education verdict would override the Plessy v. Ferguson case that constitutionally allowed the "separate but equal" doctrine. Oliver Brown filed a class-action lawsuit against the board of education of Topeka, the district in which his daughter attended. What prompted this lawsuit was his daughter's denied admittance to an all-white elementary school. In his case, brown argued that segregation violated the 14th amendment. The supreme court had combined brown's case along with 4 other similar cases to create Brown v. Board of education of Topeka. With the head of the NAACP legal defense and education fund, Thurgood Marshall, serving as a chief attorney, and new chief justice Earl Warren, an unanimous verdict was decided. On May 17, 1954, segregation in schools was ruled as a deprivation of the 14th amendment.

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Separate But Equal Doctrine

In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that racially segregated public facilities were legal, so long as the facilities for Black people and whites were equal.

The ruling constitutionally sanctioned laws barring African Americans from sharing the same buses, schools and other public facilities as whites-known as "Jim Crow" laws -and established the "separate but equal" doctrine that would stand for the next six decades.

But by the early 1950s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP) was working hard to challenge segregation laws in public schools, and had filed lawsuits on behalf of plaintiffs in states such as South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware.

In the case that would become most famous, a plaintiff named Oliver Brown filed a class-action suit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in 1951, after his daughter, Linda Brown, was denied entrance to Topeka's all-white elementary schools.

In his lawsuit, Brown claimed that schools for Black children were not equal to the white schools, and that segregation violated the so-called "equal protection clause" of the 14th Amendment, which holds that no state can "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

The case went before the U.S. District Court in Kansas, which agreed that public school segregation had a "detrimental effect upon the colored children" and contributed to "a sense of inferiority," but still upheld the "separate but equal" doctrine.

Brown v. Board of Education Verdict

When Brown's case and four other cases related to school segregation first came before the Supreme Court in 1952, the Court combined them into a single case under the name Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

Thurgood Marshall, the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, served as chief attorney for the plaintiffs. (Thirteen years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson would appoint Marshall as the first Black Supreme Court justice.)

At first, the justices were divided on how to rule on school segregation, with Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson holding the opinion that the Plessy verdict should stand. But in September 1953, before Brown v. Board of Education was to be heard, Vinson died, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower replaced him with Earl Warren, then governor of California.

Displaying considerable political skill and determination, the new chief justice succeeded in engineering a unanimous verdict against school segregation the following year.

In the decision, issued on May 17, 1954, Warren wrote that "in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place," as segregated schools are "inherently unequal." As a result, the Court ruled that the plaintiffs were being "deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment."

Little Rock Nine

In its verdict, the Supreme Court did not specify how exactly schools should be integrated, but asked for further arguments about it.

In May 1955, the Court issued a second opinion in the case (known as Brown v. Board of Education II), which remanded future desegregation cases to lower federal courts and directed district courts and school boards to proceed with desegregation "with all deliberate speed."

Though well intentioned, the Court's actions effectively opened the door to local judicial and political evasion of desegregation. While Kansas and some other states acted in accordance with the verdict, many school and local officials in the South defied it.

In one major example, Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas called out the state National Guard to prevent Black students from attending high school in Little Rock in 1957. After a tense standoff, President Eisenhower deployed federal troops, and nine students-known as the " Little Rock Nine"- were able to enter Central High School under armed guard.

Impact of Brown v. Board of Education

Though the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board didn't achieve school desegregation on its own, the ruling (and the steadfast resistance to it across the South) fueled the nascent civil rights movement in the United States.

In 1955, a year after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and would lead to other boycotts, sit-ins and demonstrations (many of them led by Martin Luther King Jr.), in a movement that would eventually lead to the toppling of Jim Crow laws across the South.

Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, backed by enforcement by the Justice Department, began the process of desegregation in earnest. This landmark piece of civil rights legislation was followed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

In 1976, the Supreme Court issued another landmark decision in Runyon v. McCrary, ruling that even private, nonsectarian schools that denied admission to students on the basis of race violated federal civil rights laws.

By overturning the "separate but equal" doctrine, the Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education had set the legal precedent that would be used to overturn laws enforcing segregation in other public facilities. But despite its undoubted impact, the historic verdict fell short of achieving its primary mission of integrating the nation's public schools.

Today, more than 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, the debate continues over how to combat racial inequalities in the nation's school system, largely based on residential patterns and differences in resources between schools in wealthier and economically disadvantaged districts across the country.

HISTORY Vault: Black History

Sources

History - Brown v. Board of Education Re-enactment, United States Courts.
Brown v. Board of Education, The Civil Rights Movement: Volume I (Salem Press).
Cass Sunstein, "Did Brown Matter?" The New Yorker, May 3, 2004.
Brown v. Board of Education, PBS.org.
Richard Rothstein, Brown v. Board at 60, Economic Policy Institute, April 17, 2014.

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Brown v. Board of Education: Summary, Ruling & Impact | HISTORY

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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional.

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Elizabeth Eckford Being Berated by the Crowd

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Elizabeth Eckford Being Berated by the Crowd

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The Students Involved in Little Rock Nine

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The Students Involved in Little Rock Nine

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The little rock nine group consists of 9 students, Ernest Green, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Pattillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta walls. Ranging from ages 15 -17 these students bravely participated in the nation's first school integration. Their intense reality of having to go to school while being assaulted and harassed by a huge vicious mob outside embodied the fight for all Americans to have access to the school of their choice regardless of race.

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The Little Rock Nine | Little Rock, Arkansas

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The 1957 Civil Rights crisis put Little Rock and Little Rock Central High on front pages worldwide and introduced the world to the Little Rock Nine.

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The supreme court's ruling on segregated schools was in 1954, however, the first instance of school integration is not until 3 years later in 1957. Little rock nine marks the beginning of school integration, beginning with 9 high school students. The little rock nine school district had made a pledge to desegregate their schools. Starting with Little rock's central high school. This event was met with hostility, as angry mobs protested outside. Additionally, Orval Faubus, the governor, ordered the national guard to prevent the students from entering the school. Sixteen days later, with a federal judge ordering the removal of the national guard and escort from the local police, the students were able to enter the building. However, the students only attended for 3 hours as they were sent home to avoid harm from the angry crowds trying to get in the building. 2 days after that little rock nine was able to begin their schooling without interruptions. This was done so with a plea from the mayor to President Eisenhower, in response to the situation, the little rock nine students were guarded by the national guard and the army. Unfortunately, the students were all harassed and threatened by their white peers.

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National Museum of African American History and Culture

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In 1954 the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were illegal. The case, Brown v. The Board of Education, has become iconic for Americans because it marked the formal beginning of the end of segregation.

But the gears of change grind slowly. It wasn't until September 1957 when nine teens would become symbols, much like the landmark decision we know as Brown v. The Board of Education, of all that was in store for our nation in the years to come.

The "Little Rock Nine," as the nine teens came to be known, were to be the first African American students to enter Little Rock's Central High School. Three years earlier, following the Supreme Court ruling, the Little Rock school board pledged to voluntarily desegregate its schools. This idea was explosive for the community and, like much of the South, it was fraught with anger and bitterness.

On September 2, 1957 the night prior to what was to be the teens' first day in Central High classrooms, Arkansas governor Orval Faubus ordered the state's National Guard to block their entrance. Faubus said it was for the safety of the nine students.

On September 4, just 24 hours after a federal judge ordered the Little Rock Nine to begin attending Central High immediately, a belligerent mob, along with the National Guard, again prevented the teens from entering the school.

Sixteen days later a federal judge ordered the National Guard removed. Once again on September 23, the Little Rock Nine attempted to enter the school. Though escorted by Little Rock police into a side door, another angry crowd gathered and tried to rush into Central High. Fearing for the lives of the nine students, school officials sent the teens home. They did, however, manage to attend classes for about three hours.

Finally, 52 years ago today, on September 25, 1957, following a plea from Little Rock's mayor, Woodrow Mann, President Dwight Eisenhower federalized the National Guard and sent U.S. Army troops to the scene. Personally guarded by soldiers from the National Guard soldiers and the Army's 101st Airborne, the Little Rock Nine began regular class attendance at Central High.

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In 1954 the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were illegal. The case, Brown v. The Board of Education, has become iconic for Americans because it marked the formal beginning of the end of segregation.

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Ernest Green: First Black Student to Graduate From Little Rock Nine

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Ernest Green: First Black Student to Graduate From Little Rock Nine

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Ernest G. Green was the only senior of the group little rock nine. Born September 22, 1941, he soon would make history as the high school's first black graduate ever. On May 27, 1958, Green graduated from Little rock central high. At his graduation, civil rights activist, Martin Luther King jr. attended virtually unnoticed. After high school, Green earned his MA in sociology from Michigan State University. Green has served on numerous boards such as the NAACP and the Winthrop Rockefeller. He is currently working at an investment firm in Washington DC as a Senior Managing Director.

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Ernest Gideon Green made history as the only senior of the Little Rock Nine, the nine African-American students who, in 1957, desegregated Central High School in Little Rock (Pulaski County). The world watched as they braved constant intimidation and threats from those who opposed desegregation of the formerly all-white high school. Green's place in Arkansas's civil rights history was solidified when he became the first African American to graduate from the previously all-white Central High School.

Ernest Green was born in Little Rock on September 22, 1941, to Lothaire and Ernest Green Sr. Green has two siblings: one brother, Scott, and one sister, Treopia Washington

An active member of the community from an early age, Green regularly attended church and was involved in the Boy Scouts, eventually becoming an Eagle Scout. He was a student at Dunbar Junior High School until he transferred to Horace Mann the year before volunteering to integrate all-white Central High School. Green persevered through a year of daily harassment by some of his fellow students to become the first black Central High graduate on May 27, 1958. Sitting with Green's family at the event was Martin Luther King Jr., who attended the graduation virtually unnoticed. In an interview, Green said, "It's been an interesting year. I've had a course in human relations first hand."

After graduating from Central, Green attended Michigan State University, earning a BA in social science in 1962 and an MA in sociology in 1964. Afterward, Green served as the director for the A. Philip Randolph Education Fund from 1968 to 1977. He then was appointed as the Assistant Secretary of Labor during the Jimmy Carter administration from 1977 to 1981. In 1987, Green joined Lehman Brothers, an investment banking firm in Washington DC, where he is currently a Senior Managing Director. He has served on numerous boards, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.

In 1958, Green-along with other members of the Little Rock Nine and Daisy Bates-was awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal, which is presented annually for outstanding achievements of African Americans by the NAACP. In 1999, President Bill Clinton presented the nation's highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal, to the members of the Little Rock Nine. He is married to Phyllis Green, with whom he had a daughter, in addition to two children from a previous marriage. Green is the subject of a Disney movie called The Ernest Green Story, produced in 1992 and starring Morris Chestnut and Monica Calhoun. In 2011, Green was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County).

For additional information:
Bates, Daisy. The Long Shadow of Little Rock. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1986.

Beals, Melba Pattillo. Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Desegregate Little Rock's Central High School. New York: Washington Square Books, 1994.

Green, Ernest. "Interview with Ernest Green." October 25, 2002. Audio from Grif Stockley Papers, BC.MSS.01.01, Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art, Central Arkansas Library System: Ernest Green Interview (accessed October 30, 2019).

Jacoway, Elizabeth, and C. Fred Williams, eds. Understanding the Little Rock Crisis: An Exercise in Remembrance and Reconciliation. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1999.

Roy, Beth. Bitters in the Honey: Tales of Hope and Disappointment across Divides of Race and Time. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1999.
National Park Service
Central High School National Historic Site

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Green, Ernest Gideon - Encyclopedia of Arkansas

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Ernest Gideon Green made history as the only senior of the Little Rock Nine, the nine African-American students who, in 1957, desegregated Central High School in Little Rock (Pulaski County). The world watched as they braved constant intimidation and threats from those who opposed desegregation of the formerly all-white high school.

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In the video provided on this page is an interview of Ernest Green. He recalls that on the night of his sixteenth birthday, a telegram was sent from President Eisenhower ensuring their entrance to the school the next day one September 23. On this day Ernest recalls spending half a school day. On this day he and the other little rock nine students were called into the principal's office and sent home. He explains how frustrating this was to him as he exclaims "I mean I'd spent three weeks trying to get into this school" in his interview. Green also remembers feeling worried about his ability to acquire enough hours and credits needed to attend college. It is interesting to see the perspective of the students in this event. They truly were average kids who had to go through a lot to get their education.

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Ernest G. Green was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on September 22, 1941 to Lothaire S. and Ernest G. Green, Sr. His parents instilled in him confidence and self-respect that helped him to become a leader among his peers and a civil rights advocate. He was one of the first black students to integrate at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, following the Supreme Court ruling to desegregate in 1954. Green is the oldest of the "Little Rock Nine," a group of high school students who entered Central High School on the morning of September 25, 1957, with an escort of paratroopers. Governor Orval Faubus had summoned National Guardsmen to turn away the black pupils in direct defiance of the federal government, which had already approved a desegregation plan for the school. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, for the first time since Reconstruction, sent in federal troops to protect the rights of the beleaguered students, and the students ultimately prevailed.Green graduated from Michigan State University with a B.A. in 1962 and an M.A. in 1964.

In 1965, Green became involved in employment law with a building-trade apprenticeship for the Adolph Institute, a project to help minority women in the South find opportunities for professional careers. He then directed the A. Phillip Randolph Education Fund from 1968 to 1976. Between 1977 and 1981, he served as assistant secretary in the Labor Department under President Jimmy Carter. Since 1981, Green has worked in the private sector for consulting firms. He was a partner for Green and Herman from 1981 to 1985, owned E. Green and Associates from 1985 to 1986, and has been with Lehman Brothers since 1985.

Green has been on the boards of various organizations, such as the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, AfriCare and the African Development Foundation. He has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the NAACP Spingarn Award, the Rockefeller Public Service Award, and honorary doctorates from Tougaloo College, Michigan State University, and Central State University.

He is married to Phyllis Green and they have three children, Adam, Jessica and McKenzie.

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Ernest G. Green was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on September 22, 1941 to Lothaire S. and Ernest G. Green, Sr. His parents instilled in him confidence and self-respect that helped him to become a leader among his peers and a civil rights advocate.

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Daisy Bates: The Creator and Backbone of Little Rock Nine

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Daisy Bates: The Creator and Backbone of Little Rock Nine

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At the age of three Daisy Bates had been exposed to the cruel reality of racism fueled hate crimes when her mother was killed by three white men. This pushed her to dedicate her life to ending racial injustice. Bates and her husband settled in Little Rock, Arkansas, starting a newspaper dedicated to the civil rights movement. She was an editor and regularly contributed articles that circulated statewide. She served as the president of the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP and became well known. When the supreme court ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional, Bates gathered African American students to enroll at all-white schools. She also publicized the schools which did follow the court's ruling. Bates was the organizer of the little rock nine, and she gave her all in ensuring they were protected and safely transported. Bates persevered through the countless rocks in her windows and other threats. However, they were forced to shut down their newspaper. Daisy Bates was the creator and backbone of little rock nine, thus being the backbone of America's integrated education.

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MLA - Norwood, Arlisha. "Daisy Bates." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2017. Date accessed.

Chicago- Norwood, Arlisha. "Daisy Bates." National Women's History Museum. 2017. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/daisy-bates.

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Bates' work with the NAACP transformed the Civil Rights Movement.

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Little Rock Nine Setting a Precedent to Youth

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Little Rock Nine Setting a Precedent to Youth

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The heroic activism by these nine students is one of the first widely successful non-violent protests by young people in the civil rights movement. These students' acts of bravery encouraged youth nationwide to participate in the fight for civil rights. Six years after this event, students in Birmingham Alabama led a march to protest the continued segregation prevalent in southern schools. Throughout the sixties, student activists participated and planned many sit-ins and boycotts. America's youth has stayed dedicated to protesting for equal rights for social and racial injustice.

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The impact of the Little Rock Nine on contemporary youth activism - The Leader

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The Little Rock Nine were an instrumental example of successful protests during the Civil Rights Movement. Here’s why it still matters today.

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The impact of the Little Rock Nine on contemporary youth activism

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MinnieJean was suspended when her lunch tray of chili spilled on her classmate, who tripped her. She later was expelled in February for calling other classmates "white trash" telling them to leave her alone after they assaulted her with a purse filled with heavy locks, whilst calling her racial slurs.

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the Continued Fight For Racial Equity in Schools

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the Continued Fight For Racial Equity in Schools

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The little rock nine students endured many forms of abuse while pursuing their education at Little Rock Central High school. Although 64 years later, there are still schools around the country that are racially segregated. And, Oliver Brown's statement saying that "separate but equal" is not at all a true representation of these schools is still relevant today. Schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods lack the resources, counselors, teacher experience, and opportunities that schools in white neighborhoods have.

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A group of white girls followed Minnijean Brown through the hallways of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, stepping on her heels until they bled, spitting at her, telling her she stinks, saying she was ugly and calling her the N-word.

After nearly a week of this racist bullying, it finally went too far. As Brown was about to enter her homeroom, one of the girls threw a purse full of combination locks and struck her in the head. Responding to this painful assault, Brown threw down the purse and said, "Leave me alone, white trash."

For that, she was expelled from school. The girls who attacked her suffered no consequence.

"The teacher didn't see the purse thrown at my head," Brown said. "The teacher did not see them following me, but she did hear me say, 'Leave me alone, white trash.' And that is the reason that I was expelled."

The incident was one of many examples of physical, verbal and psychological abuse that Brown and eight other Black students constantly endured after integrating the previously all-white school on Sept. 25, 1957.

Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas and Carlotta Walls are known today as the Little Rock Nine.

Three years after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed school segregation in its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the Little Rock Nine's enrollment at Central High School was the first major test of the federal government's ability to enforce the ruling.

But 63 years later, schools around the country are still racially segregated, and deep inequities continue to plague America's educational system. Schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods have fewer resources, fewer counselors and experienced educators and, overall, lack the level of educational opportunities found in schools in predominantly white neighborhoods.

Children of color are often caught in the "school-to-prison pipeline" - the destructive cycle of biased policies, practices and procedures that, directly or indirectly, push children out of schools in predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods and into the criminal and immigrant justice systems - at much higher rates than white children.

"As we celebrate the bravery of the Little Rock Nine who knew they had the same right as everyone else to the best education that was available, and had the strength to walk through the most vitriolic manifestations of racist hatred and ignorance, we must never forget that we stand on the shoulders of children with giant, indomitable spirits," said Bacardi Jackson, managing attorney for the Children's Rights Practice Group at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which fights for racial equity in schools. "Like them, we have battles left to fight and principles to defend that are bigger than any of us."
'Take a strong forthright stand'
The images of the Little Rock Nine - particularly that of Eckford walking alone through a screaming mob of white people who shouted insults and threats at her - hurled the crisis into the nation's living rooms and drew international attention to America's struggle against racial injustice.

Sept. 4, 1957, should have been the first day of desegregated classes at Central High. But as the nine Black students walked toward the school, a crowd of angry white people chanted, "Two, four, six, eight, we ain't gonna integrate," and armed members of the Arkansas National Guard blocked them from entering the school.

Gov. Orval Faubus, an avid segregationist, argued that troops were necessary to prevent violence and bloodshed if Black students were allowed to desegregate the school. He had ordered the National Guard to form the blockade around the school's front door to keep them out.

A team of NAACP lawyers, including Thurgood Marshall, challenged Faubus' actions in court, and a federal judge ordered the National Guard to stand down 16 days later.

But the looming threat of mob violence continued to keep the Black students from enrolling.

Observing the standoff, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. sent a telegram to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, urging him to "take a strong forthright stand in the Little Rock situation."

On Sept. 23, 1957, Eisenhower deployed 1,000 paratroopers from the Army's elite 101st Airborne Division. Two days later, the Little Rock Nine attended classes for the first time, protected by federal troops and the Arkansas National Guard, which was now under federal orders.

The next fall, Faubus closed all Little Rock high schools rather than allow desegregation to continue. But he was rebuffed when a federal court struck down his order. In August 1959, Little Rock's white high schools reopened with Black students in attendance.

"The Little Rock Nine served as a beacon of hope for the many activists who have followed in their footsteps and who have drawn inspiration from their courage and conviction in the face of violent opposition to continue the ongoing fight against racial injustice," said Tafeni English, director of the Civil Rights Memorial Center, which is operated by the SPLC and includes interpretive exhibits about civil rights martyrs.
Bomb threats every day
Minnijean Brown's decision to attend Central was simply a practical one, albeit profoundly important to the burgeoning civil rights movement.

Seeking to maintain its grasp on school segregation following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the Little Rock School Board built a new school for Black students - Horace Mann High School - in the far eastern portion of the city where few people lived. The school board also built a new school for white students that was in the far western portion of the city.

Before entering Central, Brown attended segregated schools. She entered Horace Mann as a 10th-grader in 1956. The school was across town from where she lived and offered no bus service. But Central was in the middle of Little Rock, much closer to her home.

One day, an announcement came over the intercom at Horace Mann, asking students if they wanted to sign up to attend Central.

"Central was about 10 blocks from my house, and when they announced the possibility of desegregation, my two best friends and I said, 'Oh, we'll go there because we can walk together. It'll be fun and we won't have to trek to the other school,'" Brown said.

With advocacy from the NAACP, the school board approved about 80 Black students for transfer to Central the following year. But that number fell to 10 after the students were told that they could not participate in extracurricular activities and that their parents might lose their jobs.

And there was the looming threat of violence. The parents of the 10th Black student decided to withdraw her from Central after the mob scene that first day.

"So we get there and the National Guard won't let us go in, and so we're sandwiched between a mob of screaming white people, screaming hate and 'kill them' and 'go back to,' you know their usual little juvenile thing, mean-spirited," Brown said, "and the Arkansas National Guard, who wouldn't let us in."

The Little Rock Nine would not enter the school for classes until three weeks later, following the NAACP's court battles and Eisenhower's decision to federalize the Arkansas National Guard and send in the 101st Airborne Division.

"Those are the toughest soldiers in the whole country, and they kept order," she said. "They dispersed the mob."

Inside the school, a soldier was assigned to protect each student. There were bomb threats every day. The lockers had to be checked each night to see if there were any explosives.

The Black students were safer in the hallways, but white students still found ways to harass and attack them.

In one incident, Brown's body left an impression in a locker after a boy slammed her into it.

"There was a lot of spitting and dropping battery acid, so the Black students would get holes in their clothes," she said.

She recalled a story from fellow Little Rock Nine student Melba Patillo about having acid splashed in her eyes, and the guard assigned to her quickly flushing them out.

"So any kind of disgusting hatred that you can imagine was in play," Brown said.
'American terror'
Other abuses happened in places where the guards weren't allowed to go, particularly in the gym and the bathrooms.

White boys would hit Black boys with wet towels in the gym. They would also break glass on the shower floor and fill the room with steam so the Black boys could not see it and would cut their feet.

After the white girls took their showers, they somehow figured out a way to shut off the cold water for the Black girls, who got scalded.

"They hated the guards too," Brown said, adding that the white students would insult the guards and call them traitors.

She described the situation as "American terror."

Today, Brown, who changed her last name to Brown-Trickey and moved to Canada after getting married in 1967, has earned bachelor's and master's degrees in social work, has served under the Clinton administration as deputy assistant secretary for workforce diversity at the Department of the Interior, and is now a social justice activist.

She looks back on her expulsion from Central with a mixture of pride, anger and laughter. She frequently draws from her experience in Little Rock when advising young people today.

"That's what I tell high school kids. Don't do something when you're 16, because it will follow you the rest of your life."

The incident leading to her expulsion was not the first time she had gotten into trouble at the school. One day, two boys sitting on one side of a lunch table kicked the chairs on the other side, and the chairs slammed into her.

"I dropped the tray, the chili, the cutlery, the milk - everything - and it splattered on two boys," she said.

She was sent to the girls' vice principal, who asked her if she had dropped the tray on purpose. Fed up with the constant abuse from her white peers, she said, "accidentally on purpose" and was suspended.

"I really became a target after the chili. I think we were all targets."

In August 1959, all the high schools in Little Rock reopened after being closed for the entire 1958-59 school year. Two of the original members of the Little Rock Nine, Carlotta Walls and Jefferson Thomas, re-entered the school that month. Frank Henderson, Sandra Johnson and Sybil Jordan were enrolled several weeks later after a federal court ruled that more Black students had to be admitted.

The experiences of the five Black students who attended Central after it reopened in 1959 were much different from those of 1957, according to Sybil Jordan, who changed her last name to Hampton after she got married.

Hampton, the youngest of the Black students at Central during that time, said white students did not physically attack the Black students and were mostly nonconfrontational as the desegregation struggle continued. By then, white students at Central mostly ignored the Black students, except when calling them the N-word or suggesting that they needed to go back to Africa, she said.

By 1959, white leaders in Little Rock were concerned about the negative attention the city had received around the world in newspapers and on radio and TV. The news coverage of angry white mobs and of the 101st Airborne Division being deployed in Little Rock two years earlier severely harmed the city's image, Hampton said.

It was bad for the business and manufacturing community in town, and discouraged people from moving to the city, she explained.

"Television was in its infancy and rapidly gaining popularity then. So the Little Rock Central crisis was like the shot heard round the world. Little Rock was seen as a place that was worse than Mississippi."

Hampton believed that white Central students were taking a cue from city leaders and their parents when they changed the resistance from physical and verbal attacks against Black students to shunning and isolating them.

"It was clear to me that a different message had been sent in the community, and the message was that Little Rock will no longer be the poster child for riots and destruction in its streets," she said.

Hampton, who earned a bachelor's degree in English from Earlham College, a master's degree in teaching from the University of Chicago, and master's and doctorate degrees in education from Teachers College at Columbia University, draws from her extensive educational background as a consultant with foundations, nonprofits and universities.

The three years at Central were taxing and difficult for Hampton, but she was able to build on the excellent educational foundation she had received at her all-Black elementary and junior high schools.

The positive reinforcement and the will to keep striving for academic excellence against incredible odds in an overtly hostile high school environment came from home, church and the larger beloved Black community, she said.

"We were being coached and groomed to be confident young students who could go out into a world where we would be 'buked and scorned' because of the color of our skin, but we would not give up; we would be resilient."

That's a lesson for today's young Black people, she said.
'Thank you for keeping me safe'
It's important for young Black people to keep hope alive today against the persistent racial inequities in the educational system, said Jackson, the SPLC managing attorney.

"I have found hope in the powerful voices of broad coalitions of young people who are well-informed and enraged by these inequities and who, once again, are at the forefront of organizing, protesting, and advocating for justice and liberation," Jackson said. "It is our job to clear the path and make sure they are heard in every hall and chamber of power."

Recently, Brown-Trickey reunited on Facebook with the white soldier who guarded her in the hallways of Central more than 60 years earlier.

At the time, Black soldiers were not allowed in the school - and Black students could not speak with the white soldiers who protected them.

"He said, 'You dropped me a note that says, 'Thank you for keeping me safe,' and I've kept it all this time.'"
Lead photo by A. Y. Owen/Getty Images

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Little Rock Nine: Decades-long battle for school equity began with nine Black students facing angry white mob

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A group of white girls followed Minnijean Brown through the hallways of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, stepping on her heels until they bled, spitting at her, telling her she stinks, saying she was ugly and calling her the N-word. After nearly a week of this racist bullying, it finally went too far.