When the city's high schools were closed to prevent further desegregation, Roberts moved to Los Angeles, California, and graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1959. Jefferson was born in 1942 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Thelma Mothershed Wair. Inspired by Rosa Parks, she had a desire to get the best education available by enrolling in Central High School. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Little Rock Nine Imagine showing up to your first day of school and being greeted by an angry mob and the National Guard. The Little Rock Nine's venture into desegregating their high school is now considered to be the first real test of the Brown vs.The Board of Education ruling. Minnijean Brown. ERNEST G. GREEN Ernest G. Green is the Managing Director of Public Finance for Lehman Brothers in Washington, D.C. Would you rather get a below-average education at a local school or spend hours commuting to better facilities in another district, even if it has a discriminatory culture against outsiders? In 1957, nine ordinary teenagers walked out of their homes and stepped up to the front lines in the battle for civil rights for all Americans. The drama played out for three weeks, ending only after President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to ensure that the black students made it safely through the school’s front doors. > -1) { Roberts was a sophomore at Horace Mann High School when he volunteered to integrate Little Rock's Central High School. It was the first day of school in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Elizabeth Eckford, also 15 and the girl Bryan was screaming at, was headed to class at Little Rock … These students became known as the Little Rock Nine. Governor Faubus was reelected in 1958, and, rather than permit desegregation, he closed all of Little Rock’s schools. } Contributor Names One of the students, Minnijean Brown, fought back and was expelled. Little Rock Nine Facts - 9: Virgil T. Blossom (1907–1965) was the superintendent of the Little Rock School District from 1953 to 1958. Three years earlier, following the Supreme Court ruling, the Little Rock school board pledged to voluntarily desegregate its schools. Weebly.footer.setupContainer('cdn2.editmysite.com', '1617398979'); Green made history as the only senior among the "Little Rock Nine." if (document.cookie.match(/(^|;)\s*is_mobile=1/)) { } else { How did stereotypes, labels, and misrepresentations in the media of the Little Rock Nine impact African American cultural identity? font-family: SQMarket-Medium; Biographies of the Little Rock Nine Students -. Calling the incident the "Little Rock, Arkansas Integration Crisis" is like saying the "American-French-British Battle of Yorktown, Virginia," instead of the Battle of Yorktown , or the "North American Mississippi River" instead of the Mississippi River . Elizabeth Ann Eckford made history as a member of the Little Rock Nine, the nine African-American students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The Little Rock Nine being escorted by the National Guard to Little Rock Central High School, Arkansas, 1957. She received her diploma from Central High School by mail. Using an invented name that no one uses is unencyclopedic . Civil rights leader and NAACP official Daisy Bates standing by her office during the 'Little Rock Nine' case, Little Rock, Arkansas, September 1957. Fifty In the beginning of the century, it was he who founded the Arkansas Agricultural Extension Service for Negroes under the auspices of the US Dept of Agriculture; he had also studied and work for none other than the distinguished George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington, before graduating from Tuskegee Institute. i have a history project about them. Melba Pattillo was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941. First Day at School }); They encountered a large white mob in front of the school, who began shouting, throwing stones, and threatening to kill the students. His work has been sampled, referenced or reinterpreted by Common, Drake, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Jamie xx, LCD Soundsystem and Public Enemy, just to name a few. The oldest of three daughters, was born on December 18, 1942, in Little Rock, Arkansas. '; Orval Faubus joined with local white activists to block nine black students, known as the Little Rock Nine, who had been admitted to Little Rock's Central High School.