The Little Rock Nine, and the Grace of a Heroic White Woman

On this date in 1957, nine courageous teenagers tried to enter Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.  The Supreme Court had issued the monumental “Brown Vs. Board of Education” ruling 3 years earlier, making segregation in schools illegal, yet schools in the south had not yet integrated. Groups like the KKK made what would happen to any African Americans trying to attend a “white” school very clear.  The “Little Rock Nine” wanted to attend Central High, a cathedral of an educational institution.

Governor Orville Faubus had vowed that he would not allow schools in Arkansas to be integrated.  He sent the National Guard there to forcefully block the entry of the nine.  Thousands of protestors came from Little Rock and all over.  They screamed horrible things at the kids like “Go back to Africa Nigger”, and “2-4-6-8, we don’t want to integrate.”

One of the nine was Elizabeth Eckford…