Little Rock Nine Biography
The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine learners from African America registered in 1957 at Little Rock Central High School.
Their registration was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus initially prevented the students from entering the racially segregated school. They then attended after President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s intervention.
Little Rock Nine Background Information
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of America’s public schools was unconstitutional. In its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, issued May 17, 1954, Until the court’s decision.
Many states across the nation had mandatory segregation laws. Requiring African-American and white children to attend separate schools.
Resistance to the ruling was so widespread that the court issued a second decision in 1955, known as Brown II, ordering school districts to integrate “with all deliberate speed.”The school board introduced a plan for gradual integration of its schools.
In reaction to the Brown decisions and pressure from the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the school board agreed to comply with the high court’s ruling.
Virgil Blossom, the Superintendent of Schools, submitted a plan of gradual integration to the school board on May 24, 1955, which the board unanimously approved. The plan would be implemented during the fall of the 1957 school year, which would begin on September 1957.
By the end of that same year, the NAACP had registered nine black students to attend the previously all-white Little Rock Central High.Selected on the criteria of excellent grades and attendance. Called the “Little Rock Nine”
The Little Rock Nine Members
1. Ernest Green
Born on September 22, 1941, Ernest Gideon Green. He was one of the Little Rock Nine. A group of African-American students. They were the first black students ever to attend Little Rock Central High School classes in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. Green was the school’s first African-American graduate in 1958. He and the other Little Rock Nine members were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bill Clinton.
2. Elizabeth Eckford
Elizabeth Ann Eckford (born October 4, 1941) was one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who, in 1957, were the first black students ever to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The integration came as a result of Brown v. Board of Education. Press photographers caught Eckford’s government ordeal on the morning of September 4, 1957, after being prevented by the Arkansas National Guard from visiting the college.
A spectacular snapshot by Johnny Jenkins from the United Press (UP) showed the young girl being followed and endangered by an angry white mob; this and other pictures of the shocking occurrences of the day were distributed around the United States.
3. Jefferson Thomas
Jefferson Thomas was born to Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Thomas in Little Rock (September 19, 1942–September 5, 2010), the youngest of seven kids. His parents named him after U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. Thomas first attended Horace Mann High School, a segregated all-black school, Where he was a track athlete.
In 1957, he volunteered to be among the first group of black students to integrate all-white Little Rock Central High School for the 1957–58 school year as a sophomore. The Little Rock Nine made an unsuccessful attempt on September 4, 1957, to join the segregated Central High School.
Under orders from the governor, the Arkansas National Guard and an angry mob of about 400 surrounded the school and prevented them from entering. On September 23, 1957, a mob of about 1000 people surrounded the school again as the students attempted to enter.
The following day, President Dwight D. Eisenhower took control of the Arkansas National Guard from the governor and sent soldiers to accompany the students to school for protection. Soldiers were deployed at the school for the entirety of the school year.
4. Terrence Roberts
Terrence Roberts was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, to William L. and Margaret G. Roberts. He first attended the segregated schools M. W. Gibbs Elementary, Dunbar Junior High School and Horace Mann High School.
In 1957, he volunteered to attend the all-white Little Rock Central High School the next fall, helping to desegregate one of the nation’s largest schools.
5. Carlotta Walls LaNier
Carlotta Walls LaNier was born in 1942 Little Rock, Arkansas to Juanita and Cortel you Walls. Cortelyou was a brick mason and a World War II veteran, while Juanita was a secretary in the Office of Public Housing. Cortelyou died in 1976 from leukemia.
LaNier attended Dunbar Junior High School for the first time, a Little Rock segregated school. She went to be one of the first African-American to attend Central High School after graduating, though.
She married Ira (Ike) LaNier in 1968, Whitney and Brooke, with whom she had two children. She’s got two grandchildren, one granddaughter, and one grandson. She now lives in Englewood, Colorado.
6. Minnijean Brown
Minnijean Brown-Trickey was born to Willie and Imogene Brown in Little Rock, AR. Willie worked as an independent mason and a landscaping contractor while Imogene was a homemaker and a nurses aide. Minnijean was the oldest of four siblings.
Brown-Trickey started her high school career in 1956 at Horace Mann, an all-black college in Little Rock, AR. She later moved to Little Rock Central High School in 1957 following the judgment of Brown v. Board of Education.
Minnijean was expelled from Central and graduated from New York High School at Manhattan’s New Lincoln School.
7. Gloria Ray Karlmark
Gloria Cecelia Ray Karlmark (born September 26, 1942, (76) Little Rock) was a member of the Little Rock Nine, the nine African-American students who, in 1957, left Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
One of Harvey C’s three kids. And there’s Julia Miller Ray. Gloria was 15 when she tried to join Little Rock Central High School where under the order of Governor Fungus who opposed inclusion,
She was prohibited from joining the Arkansas National Guard. They returned to the federal soldiers protected school weeks later.
8. Thelma Mothershed
Thelma Mothershed-Wair (born November 29, 1940) was the eldest member of the Little Rock Nine group who attended Little Rock’s Central High School following the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education court case.
“The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis;
In which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas.They then attended after the intervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Wair was born in Bloomberg, Texas and is the daughter of Arlevia and Hosanna Claire Mothershed of Little Rock, Arkansas. Mothershed had five siblings other than herself, three sisters and two brothers. She attended Dunbar Junior High and Horace Mann High schools.
She finished her junior year at the formerly all-white high school during the tumultuous 1957–58 year despite the daily torment of male learners at Little Rock Central High School.
She was a very good student and in the college year 1958-59, she was able to graduate from Central High after leaving her way to finish all the credits needed to graduate on time.
9. Melba Pattillo Beals
Melba Joyner Pattillo Beals (born December 7, 1941) is an American journalist and college educator who is widely known as a member of the Little Rock Nine.
The group of African-American students who were the first to integrate Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Born on December 7, 1941, on the same day as the Pearl Harbor Attack, Beals grew up in an education-priced family.
Her mom, Lois Marie Pattillo, received a Ph.D. in 1954, was one of Arkansas University’s first black graduates to work as an English teacher in middle school.
Her father, Howell Pattillo, worked for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Beals’ brother, Conrad S. Pattillo, served as U.S. Marshal of the Eastern District of Arkansas during the Clinton Administration.
Little Rock Nine Aftermath
THE POSITIVE
After the school year of 1957-1958, Ernest Green became the first African American to graduate from Central High School. Extremely powerful Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Jr. attended his ceremony.
As King said in a telegram addressed to President Eisenhower, “the overwhelming majority of southerners, Negro and white, stand firmly behind your resolute action”.
It was true — many backed desegregation throughout the nation and the part of Eisenhower in it. There were, though, those standing up against it.
THE NEGATIVE.
Little Rock Nine Bill Clinton
In 1999, on behalf of the United States, President Clinton presented each of the Little Rock Nine with the Congressional Gold Medal. Congress at a unique White House ceremony.
For an exhibit at the Clinton Presidential Library, the Nine jointly donated one of these medals.` The medal is displayed in this area of the permanent exhibit, accompanied by a narrative of the crisis.
President Eisenhower’s televised address on Central High, and video of the White House ceremony in which the Nine were awarded the medal.
Commemorating Courage: 40th Anniversary of Desegregation of Central High.
This online exhibit revisits the history of the Central High Crisis of 1957 through select quotes from President Clinton’s remarks at the Commemoration of the 40th Anniversary.
An examination of the speechwriting process required to produce these remarks, documents, and images from the Clinton Library archives. The exhibit also provides links to additional historical materials maintained by other institutions.
Little Rock Nine Accomplishments
The story of Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine is inspirational. They helped pave the way for future integration and equal civil rights in this country.
President Bill Clinton awarded them with the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999. Their achievements continue to be remembered as President Barack Obama invited them to his presidential inauguration in 2008. Let us honor their educational fight by doing the best that we can do every day.
Little Rock Nine Awards
In 2007, the U.S. Mint made available a silver dollar commemorative to “recognize and pay tribute to the strength, determination, and courage shown by African-American high school students in the fall of 1957.”
The obverse depicts students accompanied by a soldier with nine stars symbolizing the Little Rock Nine. The opposite shows the Little Rock Central High School picture,
To enhance the National Historic Site, proceeds from coin sales are to be used. On December 9, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama, the first African-American to be elected President of the United States, was invited to attend the inauguration of the Little Rock Nine.
On February 9, 2010, Marquette University honored the group by presenting them with, among other notables, the Père Marquette Discovery Award, the greatest honor of the university, earlier provided to Mother Teresa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Karl Rahner, and the Apollo 11 astronauts.
Little Rock Central High School
Little Rock Central High School is still part of the Little Rock School District and is now a National Historic Site that houses a Civil Rights Museum administered in collaboration with the National Park Service to celebrate the 1957 events.
In 1958, Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén published “Little Rock”, a bilingual composition in English and Spanish denouncing the racial segregation in the United States.
Melba Pattillo Beals wrote a memoir titled Warriors Don’t Cry, published in the mid-1990s. Two made-for-television movies have depicted the events of the crisis: the 1981 CBS movie Crisis at Central High, and the 1993 Disney Channel movie
In 1996, seven of the Little Rock Nine appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show. They came face to face with a few of the white students who had tormented them as well as one student who had befriended them.
Members established the Little Rock Nine Foundation in February 1999, setting up a scholarship program that had financed 60 university students by 2013.
The foundation decided in 2013 to finance solely learners attending the Public Service School of the University of Arkansas Clinton.
Little Rock Nine Artifacts
Carlotta Walls, who was 14 that day, wore a brand new cotton dress. donated it along with her high school report card and Class of 1960 diploma to the museum.
“It allows us to tell a story of what young people can do to demand America to be made better,” says museum director Lonnie Bunch. They were able to stay in the classrooms finally, but the hate in the classroom stayed, too.