History reverberates in Little Rock

Looking back at the Little Rock school segregation crisis of 1957, we ask, "What was the big deal?" Why was there mob violence? Why were there death threats? Why did hundreds of white teenage students punch, kick and trip nine black students, all for the purpose of not letting them attend their school? It is especially hard for today's young people to comprehend that just over a half century ago United States governors and congressmen supported policies that only fringe white supremacists advocate today.

In September 1957, Little Rock's Central High School was ordered to abide by federal law and integrate. The result was hell on a high school campus for nine students.

Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus, a hard-line segregationist, insisted at the outset of the 1957-58 school year that Central High School would never be integrated. He ordered Arkansas National Guard troops to ensure that black students never set a toe inside the halls of the rambling school, once labeled by the American Institute of Architects as the "most beautiful high school in America."

President Dwight Eisenhower ultimately ordered one the U.S. Army's 101st elite Airborne Division, aka the Screaming Eagles, here to protect the students who became known as the Little Rock Nine. Today the still-functioning high school is the keystone of one of the nation's newest national landmarks: Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site. After a visit here, one can round out a Little Rock ramble by exploring another of the city's newer attractions: the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum.

National Park Service interpreter Spirit Trickey called the high school national historic site "a testimony to the progress that has been made in this country. When we step back and look at the events of 1957, they are something that seems unimaginable today."

The best place to begin a visit is the permanent visitors' center, opened in 2007. Audio-visual exhibits and interactive oral history listening stations introduce visitors to the complex history of the time.

Trickey has her own personal connection. Her mother, Minnijean Brown, was one of the Little Rock Nine.

"I really make an effort to tell young people who my mother is because I think it gives the story more of a human connection," Trickey said. "Sometimes kids gasp and stare at me in disbelief."

On the walking tour, Trickey pointed out landmarks, many seen in the visitor center in grainy, vintage black-and-white videos. A tree where a black figure was burned in effigy still stands. Ponder's Drug Store, where one of the nine, Elizabeth Eckford, tried to use a pay phone to escape a mob, is abandoned and boarded. Eckford was rescued by Grace Lorch, a white woman who asked the harassers, "Would you do this to your own child?

Badass Ladies Of History: Melba Pattillo Beals - Persephone Magazine

On September 3rd, 1957, Beals would walk, as almost any student would today, to attend high school in what would become one of the most telling events in Civil Rights history. She was confronted by white students and their parents with threats of death, lynching, violence, and was spat on and referred to in every derogatory sense.  But the icing on the cake?  Govenor Orval Faubus had declared the previous night that: “I have, therefore, in accordance with the solemn responsibility and the oath of my office, taken the following action: units of the National Guard have been and are now being mobilized with the mission to maintain or restore the peace and good order of this community. Advanced units are already on duty on the grounds of Central High School.” Faubus then went to further warn that the Little Rock Nine were to enter Central High School, “blood [would] run in the streets.”

As renegade police, angry mobs, and a threatening National Guard unit met Melba and the rest of the Little Rock Nine with threats of extreme violence, President Eisenhower sent combat-ready soldiers into the area to protect the lives of Melba and the rest of the Nine. Her life was forever altered by the incident and further into her school year, she found herself on the receiving end of a never-ending onslaught of death threats, hostility and eventual attack from a student who threw acid into her eyes, almost causing her to go blind.  While it was deemed “unsafe” to defend herself, Melba kept her determination going in spite of the extreme hostility by reading the literature of Gandhi, as well as seeking guidance from her grandmother, someone who she attributes much of her strength to in her books. Eventually, Central High was shut down completely due to the “unsuccessful attempt” at integrating students, an event that propelled Melba to be removed from the school permanently. Sensing the danger of the Pattillo family continuing to live in Little Rock, the NAACP helped the family move to Santa Rosa, California, and Melba was able to finish her education.

Melba excelled in journalism throughout the rest of high school and eventually went to college for journalism. She began writing for major newspapers and other publications on the continuing social issues surrounding the civil rights movement, as well as receiving a Masters degree in journalism from Columbia.

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