Brown v. Board of Education

“ Separate but Not Equal” –

“The story of Brown v. Board of Education, which ended legal segregation in public schools, is one of hope and courage. When the people agreed to be plaintiffs in the case, they never knew they would change history. The people who make up this story were ordinary people. They were teachers, secretaries, welders, ministers and students who simply wanted to be treated equally. Their struggle to fulfill the American dream set in motion sweeping changes in American society, and redefined the nation’s ideals.”

Elizabeth Ann Eckford

(1941- )

Biography• Elizabeth Eckford was born on

October 4 ,1942 in Little Rock, Arkansas.

• She was an African American known as the Little Rock Nine.

• She is one of the six children by Oscar and Birdie Eckford

• Her father worked nights as a dining car maintenance worker for the Missouri Pacific Railroad’s Little Rock station. Her mother taught at the segregated state school for blind and deaf children, instructing them in how to wash and iron for themselves.

What Happened ?Elizabeth, like most children in the Deep South, went to a segregated school.The states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Mississippi,

Alabama,Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky all

prohibitedblack and white children from attending the same school. On 4th September, 1957, Elizabeth Eckford and eight other African Americanstudents attempted to enter Little Rock Central High School, a school thatpreviously had only accepted white children. The governor of Arkansas, OrvalFaubus, was determined to ensure that segregation did not take place and sent

theNational Guard to stop the children from entering the school. She then ran into anangry mob of people—men, women, and teenagers—opposing addition, chanting,

“Two,four, six, eight, we ain’t gonna integrate.” [1] Eckford then made her way through

theangry mob, and sat on a bus bench at the end of the block. She was eventually

able to get ona city bus, and went to her mother’s office.

1.^-http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry detail.aspx?entryID=721

Little Rock NineLittle Rock Nine were the nine African

AmericanStudents who was implicated in thedesegregation of Little Rock Central HighSchool. Before transferring to Central, theNine attended segregated schools for blackstudents in Little Rock (Pulaski County).Carlotta Walls, Jefferson Thomas, andGloria Ray attended Paul Laurence DunbarJunior High School , while Ernest Green,Elizabeth Eckford , Thelma Mothershed,Terrence Roberts, Minnijean Brown, andMelba Pattillo attended Horace Mann HighSchool.

Little Rock NineOn September 4, 1957, the Nine attempted to enterCentral High but were turned away by ArkansasNational Guard troops. The Nine then remained at

homefor two weeks, still trying their best to keep up with

school work. When the federal court order that Faubus not tointerfere with court’s order, he then told the guards toremove from the front of the school. Sep. 23 , the nine entered the school for the first time but still had to

deal with the crowd who chanted the whole morning. Little Rock police, afraid about the uncontrolling mob,

removedthe Nine later that morning. Calling the mob’s actions “disgraceful,” Eisenhower called out 1,200 members of

theU.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division—the “ScreamingEagles” of Fort Campbell, Kentucky—and placed theArkansas National Guard under federal orders. OnSeptember 25, 1957, under federal troop escort, the

Ninewere escorted back into Central for their first full day

of classes. Due to the harassment-kicking, pushing and

namecalling, the military assigned them guards to escort

them toclass.

Pictures

Elizabeth TodayIt took until 1996, for Elizabeth to talk publicly about Little Rock Central. The first time she did

so,she cried in front of a group of school children. Even today, rather than repeat her description

of thatfirst day, Elizabeth tells reporters the same she told Daisy Bates, the president of the Arkansaschapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“For a moment all I could hear was the shuffling of their feet. Then someone shouted, ‘Here she comes, get ready!’ I moved away from the crowd on the sidewalk and into the street. If the mob came at me I could then cross back over so the guards could protect me.

“The crowd moved in closer and then began to follow me, calling me names. I still wasn’t afraid. Just a little bit nervous. Then my knees started to shake all of a sudden and I wondered whether I could make it to the center entrance a block away. It was the longest block I ever walked in my whole life.

A photograph of Elizabeth Eckford, taken the first day the Little Rock Nine attempted to enter Central High School, has become a symbol of the

civil rights struggle. The photo, taken by Will Counts of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,

depicts hostile whites surrounding Eckford, who looks straight ahead of her as she walks. Behind

her, Hazel Bryan Massery jeers. “Hazel, she apologized in 1963 on the phone,” Eckford said.

“And in 1997, a photographer brought us together. She absolutely needed forgiveness.”

Read more: http://www.america.gov/st/diversity-english/2007/August/2007

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