Us Civil Rights Movement and its Effect on Australia

- “Little Rock School”

Little Rock School

• What do you think is happening in this picture?

• Analyse the body language of everyone you can see, what are they thinking?

What are they thinking?

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YouTube Clip

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oodolEmUg2g

• What are your thoughts regarding the attitudes of the parents?

• Why do you think they were behaving the way they were?

• How were the students behaving? Why?

Do you think anything different?

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The Little Rock Nine• “Little Rock Central High School” in Arkansas• On May 17th 1954, the US Supreme Court issued the decision from

the Brown vs Board of Education case in Kansas to desegregate all schools.

• ‘The Little Rock Nine’ was made up of 9 black students who volunteered to be the first to attend the previously white only school

• After many failed attempts to attend the school due to the Governor sending in the National Guard in addition to the angry mob of parents and locals who surrounded the school, they were allowed in on September 25th 1957 after President Eisenhower took control of the National Guard troops and directed them to prevent interference with the orders of the law

The Little Rock Nine

• Everyday that the students were at the school, they had to endure; – verbal abuse; taunts, name calling, threats– physical abuse; fights, pushed over on their way to

class– Humiliation; being spat on, having their books

pushed out of their hands and kicked across corridors, having graffiti put on their lockers, social exclusion, being prevented from entering the school before the army stepped in, threatening phone calls

What an average school day looked like

Elizabeth Eckford

• Eckford is the girl in the previous picture, the most famous picture from this incident

• Her mother hoped she wouldn’t go through with attending the desegregated school.

• Why do you think she thought this?

Ernest Green

• The only of the nine to graduate at the school, making him the first African-American to do so from a previously all white school.

• Martin Luther King Jnr attended his graduation, sitting next to Green’s family virtually unnoticed by others.

• How could he be so easily unrecognised?

Thelma Mothershed

• Suffered from rheumatic fever and couldn’t attend school for 3 years, however was only 1 year behind when she started at LRCHS.

• Wouldn’t any school be more than happy to have someone with that kind of academic skill?

Melba Pattillo Beals• Wrote a book titled “Warriors

don’t cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Desegregate Little Rock’s Central High School”

• The idea came from a guard who told her to act like a soldier and not let the enemy see your emotions

• How would you have reacted if this advice was given to you? Would you have abided by it considering it was from a white man?

Carlotta Walls

• Was the youngest out of the 9, 14 ½ years old.

• Wanted to go to Little Rock Central High School as soon as she knew what desegregation meant.

• To what extent do you think her family and neighbourhood had on her decision to go to LSCHS?

Terrence Roberts

• Wanted to leave LRCHS due to the terrible experience he was enduring, however continued as he didn’t want to let the rest of the Little Rock Nine down.

• Who else would he have felt he had let down if he had left?

Jefferson Thomas

• Was a very good track athlete.

• Was quoted in saying “Never fight when you can run your way out of it” after a mob of 20 white male students chased him until he reached the Principal’s office.

• To what extent was he attempting to make a positive situation out of a negative one?

Gloria Cecelia Ray

• Her mother, who had 2 different University Degrees, was fired from her job when she refused to remove her daughter from the school.

• What does this say about the effect the LRCHS event had on the community?

Minnijean Brown• Spoke back to a white student

after taunts were directed her way and was therefore suspended.

• She was accepted into the New Lincoln School in NYC where she continued her schooling however still felt as if she should have finished what she started at LRCHS.

• Does her suspension say anything about her dedication to the Civil Rights Movement?