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History > USA > Civil rights > Activists > Elizabeth Eckford
Little Rock Nine: the day young students shattered racial segregation
Sixty years ago, nine teens braved violent protests to attend school after the supreme court outlawed segregation – but racial separation is not over in the US G Sun 24 Sep 2017 12.00 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/24/
Black students like Elizabeth Eckford faced hatred to integrate Central High in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957.
Today white school board members are supporting an embattled black superintendent.
50 Years Later, Little Rock Can’t Escape Race NYT 8.5.2007
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/
Anglonautes'note: the phto above is cropped - not the original. Other version:
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/
Jerry Dhonau, left, was among journalists who helped shield a 15-year-old student, Elizabeth Eckford, from a hostile white crowd in 1957 near Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas.
Photograph: Democrat-Gazette
Desegregation at Little Rock A daughter recalls her journalist father’s reporting of the desegregation of the Little Rock, Ark., public schools in 1957. NYT Sept. 30, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/30/
1957
School desegregation > Arkansas
Little Rock Nine
Elizabeth Eckford
Eckford was 14 years old when she and eight other teenagers first attempted to desegregate Central.
The other eight had been notified by telephone the night before what would have been the group’s first attempt to enter the school on Sept. 4, 1957, warning them of protests and a blockade by the Arkansas
National Guard.
But Eckford’s family didn’t own a phone, so she didn't get the word that the effort was being delayed.
When Eckford arrived alone at the school's front entrance, she was singled out by the white mob and prevented from entering the school.
"One of the things that people were shouting at me was 'black so-and-so, black so-and-so.'
You know, when I was growing up, you could start a fight if you called another negro child black.
We had been taught to be ashamed of that word," Eckford said.
"But not so now, I hope, I hope, I hope."
Now, a reconstructed bench across from the school memorializes the place where she sought refuge from the mob, guarded by reporters and a local teacher.
After the nine were eventually allowed to attend the school, all were bullied relentlessly for the rest of the school year.
Eckford calmly recounted what she later found out was a systematic campaign of brutality perpetrated by white students, organized by adults and enabled by the school's administration.
"Being body slammed into wall lockers was something that occurred every day.
When they decided to walk on our heels going down the hallway, that lasted for about a week.
But these kids, I now know, were directed by an adult, organized by an adult, and they went to this woman’s house every evening after school to plan for the next day."
Eckford said that while the nine’s actions were important to the cause of civil rights, it wasn’t because of the school district or the state’s motivations.
"The desegregation of Central High School was tokenism.
The district intended limited, token desegregation.
They felt like if they had a few darker-skinned people in the school, it would count as desegregation."
Eckford also mentioned late civil rights lawyer and Democratic State Rep. John Walker, who sued the Little Rock School Board numerous times over the district’s failure to fully integrate.
https://www.npr.org/series/14158264/
https://www.npr.org/2024/04/02/
https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/post/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/30/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/21/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/from-the-archive-blog/2017/sep/25/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/24/
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/
https://www.npr.org/2011/10/02/
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/14080752 - August 31, 2007
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/05/17/
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/10/
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