Little Rock Central National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

High School Little Rock Central High School

National Historic Site

The Little Rock Nine

The Little Rock Nine in front of Central High School, September 25, 1997. The Nine are l to r: Thelma Mothershed Wair, Minnijean Brown Trickey, Jefferson
Thomas, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, and Melba Pattillo Beals. Behind the Nine are, l to r: Little
Rock Mayor Jim Dailey, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, and President William Jefferson Clinton. Photo by Isaiah Trickey.

Who Are The Little Rock In 1957, nine ordinary teenagers walked out of their homes and stepped up to the front
Nine? lines in the battle for civil rights for all Americans. The media coined the name Little
Rock Nine, to identify the first African-American students to desegregate Little Rock
Central High School.

The End of Legal In 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka [Blossom said] youre not going to be able to go
Supreme Court decision outlawed segregation in to the football games or basketball games. Youre
Segregation
public education. Little Rock School District not going to be able to participate in the choir or
Superintendent Virgil Blossom devised a plan of drama club, or be on the track team. You cant go
gradual integration that would begin at Central to the prom. There were more cannots
High School in 1957. The school board called for Carlotta Walls LaNier
volunteers from all-black Dunbar Junior High and
Horace Mann High School to attend Central. When my tenth-grade teacher in our Negro
school said there was a possibility of integration,
Prospective students were told they would not be I signed up. We all felt good. We knew that
able to participate in extracurricular activities if Central High School had so many more courses,
they transferred to Central-such as football, and dramatics and speech and tennis courts and
basketball, or choir. Many of their parents were a big, beautiful stadium.
threatened with losing their jobs, and some students Minnijean Brown to Look Magazine, June 24, 1958.
decided to stay at their own schools.

The First Day of School On September 3, 1957, the Little Rock Nine arrived the other end of the block by herself. She was met
to enter Central High School, but they were turned by a mob screaming obscenities and threats,
away by the Arkansas National Guard. Governor chanting, Two, four, six, eight, we aint gonna
Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National integrate!
I was not prepared for Guard the night before to, as he put it, maintain
what actually happened. and restore order The soldiers barred the We didnt know that his [Faubus] idea of
African American students from entering. keeping the peace was keeping the blacks out.
Elizabeth Eckford Jefferson Thomas
I thought he [Faubus] was there to protect me.
How wrong I was. More than two weeks went by before the Little
Thelma Mothershed Wair Rock Nine again attempted to enter Central High
School. On September 23, 1957, the Little Rock
The students arrived at Central alone on the first Nine entered the school. Outside, rioting broke out
day. By prior arrangement, they gathered at the 16th and the Little Rock police removed the Nine for
Street entrance with several local ministers who their safety.
accompanied them. Elizabeth Eckford arrived at

The President Becomes On September 24, 1957, President Dwight D.

Involved Eisenhower ordered units of the U.S. Armys 101st
Airborne Division -the Screaming Eagles- into
Little Rock and federalized the Arkansas National
Guard. In a televised speech delivered to the nation,
President Eisenhower stated, Mob rule cannot be
allowed to override the decisions of the courts.

On September 25, 1957, under federal troop escort,

the Little Rock Nine made it inside for their first full
day of school. The 101st Airborne left in October and
the federalized Arkansas National Guard troops
remained throughout the year. The Little Rock Nine are escorted into Central High School by 101st
Airborne troops, Sept. 25, 1957. Photo by Will Counts.
Inside the School The Little Rock Nine had assigned guards to walk prejudice and segregation caused African-
them from class to class. The guards could not American children to develop a sense of inferiority.
accompany the students inside the classrooms,
bathrooms, or locker rooms. They would stand The remaining eight students completed the school
outside the classrooms during class time. In spite of year at Central. Senior Ernest Green was the first
this, the Little Rock Nine endured verbal and African American student to graduate from Central
physical attacks from some of their classmates High School.
throughout the school year. Although some white
Ernest Greens diploma from Little Rock
students tried to help, few white students Its been an interesting year. Ive had a course in
Central High School. befriended any of the Nine. Those who did received human relations first hand.
similar treatment as the Nine, such as hate mail and Ernest Green, Life Magazine, June, 1958
threats.

One of the Little Rock Nine, Minnijean Brown, was

suspended in December for dropping chili on some Segregationist card distributed by Central High students after
Minnijean Browns expulsion in 1958.
boys after they refused to let her pass to her seat in
the cafeteria. She was later expelled in February
1958 for calling a girl who had hit her with a purse
white trash.

After Browns expulsion, students passed around

cards that read, One Down, Eight to Go.
Brown finished high school at New Lincoln School
in New York City, while living with Drs. Kenneth
and Mamie Clark. The Clarks were the social
psychologists whose doll test work demonstrated
for the Supreme Court in Brown that racial

The Aftermath The following year, the citys high schools were The rest of the Little Rock Nine completed their
closed to prevent further desegregation while the high school educations at different schools.
NAACP continued to pursue the legal case to
integrate Little Rocks schools. The Little Rock Nine have received numerous
accolades and awards, from the renowned NAACP
When the schools reopened, Carlotta Walls and Spingarn Medal to the nations highest civilian
Jefferson Thomas returned to Central and honor, the Congressional Gold Medal.
graduated in 1960. Thelma Mothershed received
her diploma from Central High School by taking
correspondence courses to complete her studies.

Little Rock Nine Minnijean Brown Trickey Carlotta Walls LaNier

Brown Trickey attended Southern Illinois University and LaNier attended Michigan State University for two years
Biographies majored in journalism. She later moved to Canada, where before moving with her family to Denver. In 1968, she
she received a Bachelor of Social Work in Native Human earned a Bachelor of Science from Colorado State College
Services from Laurentian University and a Master of (now the University of Northern Colorado.) In 1977, she
Social Work from Carleton University in Ontario, Canada. founded LaNier and Company, a real estate brokerage
Brown Trickey is a social activist and has worked on firm.
behalf of peacemaking, environmental issues, developing
youth leadership, diversity education and training, Terrence Roberts
cross-cultural communication, and gender and social Terrence Roberts moved to Los Angeles, California, and
justice advocacy. graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1959. He
received a bachelors degree in sociology from California
Congressional Gold Medals of the Little Rock
Elizabeth Eckford State University in 1967, and he attended the University
Nine. Photo by Isaiah Trickey. Eckford joined the U.S. Army and earned her G.E.D. of California at Los Angeles, receiving a masters degree
before returning to Little Rock in the 1960s. She attended in social welfare in 1970. In 1976, Roberts was awarded a
Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. Eckford Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University in psychology.
has held various jobs throughout her life. She has been a In 1994 he became department chair of the psychology
waitress, history teacher, welfare worker, unemployment program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. Currently,
and employment interviewer, and a military reporter. he is a faculty member at Antioch and travels widely as a
speaker and consultant.
Ernest Green
After graduating from high school, Green attended Jefferson Thomas
Michigan State University, earning a bachelors degree in Jefferson Thomas was a track athlete at Horace Mann
1962 and a masters degree in 1964 in sociology. President High School when he chose to volunteer to integrate all-
Jimmy Carter appointed Green as an assistant Secretary of white Central High School for the 1957-58 school year as
Housing and Urban Affairs in 1977. He is currently an a sophomore. He graduated from Central high School in
executive with a Washington, DC investment firm. 1960 and eventually became an accountant for the United
States Department of Defense. Thomas is now retired.
Thelma Mothershed Wair
Wair graduated from Southern Illinois Universit y - Gloria Ray Karlmark
Carbondale in 1964 and earned her masters degree in Gloria Ray Karlmark moved to Missouri and attended the
Guidance and Counseling, as well as an Administrative newly integrated Kansas City Central High School. She
Certificate in Education from Southern Illinois graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT),
University, Edwardsville. Wair taught home economics in Chicago in 1965 with a bachelors degree in Chemistry
in the East St. Louis school system for 28 years before and Mathematics. Ray Karlmark has served as a teacher,
retiring in 1994. mathematician, systems analyst, and technical writer. In
addition, she founded and served as Editor-in-Chief of
Melba Pattillo Beals Computers in Industry, an international journal of
Melba Pattillo Beals earned her bachelors degree from San practice and experience of computer applications in
Francisco State University. She then graduated from industry. From 1982 to 1994, she entered into early
Columbia University with an advanced degree in retirement before going back to work in the Netherlands
communications. Beals has worked as a reporter for NBC, - first for Philips Telecommunications in Hilversum, later
and has served as a communications consultant. Beals is for Philips Lighting in Eindhoven.
the only one of the Little Rock Nine to have written a
book based on her experiences at Central High School
entitled, Warriors Dont Cry: A Searing Memoir of the
Battle to Integrate Little Rocks Central High.

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