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They didn't start out being known as the Little Rock Nine but now they are in America's history books together. Here is a brief glimpse at these former students and what they are doing today, 40 years after this momentous year.
These nine students are unanimous in proclaiming the true heroes of the crisis at Central High School were their parents, who supported them and kept the faith that the process was right and that what they endured would give them opportunities they deserved.
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Ernest Green
In 1958, he became the first black student to graduate from Central High School. He graduated from Michigan State University and served as Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs under President Jimmy Carter. He currently is a managing partner and vice president of Lehman Brothers in Washington, D.C.
Elizabeth Eckford
The only one of the nine still living in Little Rock, Elizabeth made a career of the U.S. Army that included work as a journalist. In 1974, she returned to the home in which she grew up and is now a part-time social worker and mother of two sons.
Jefferson Thomas
He graduated from Central in 1960, following a year in which Little Rock's public high schools were ordered closed by the legislature to prevent desegregation. Today, he is an accountant with the U.S. Department of Defense and lives in Anaheim, Calif.
Dr. Terrence Roberts
Following the historic year at Central, his family moved to Los Angeles where he completed high school. He earned a doctorate degree and teaches at the University of California at Los Angeles and Antioch College. He also is a clinical psychologist.
Carlotta Walls Lanier
One of only three of the nine who eventually graduated from Central, she and Jefferson Thomas returned for their senior year in 1959. She graduated from Michigan State University and presently lives in Englewood, Colorado, where she is in real estate.
Minnijean Brown Trickey
She was expelled from Central High in February, 1958, after several incidents, including her dumping a bowl of chili on one of her antagonists in the school cafeteria. She moved with her husband to Canada during the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s and today is a writer and social worker in Ontario. Winterstar Productions is presently filming a documentary on her life.
Gloria Ray Karlmark
She graduated from Illinois Technical College and received a post-graduate degree in Stockholm, Sweden. She was a prolific computer science writer and at one time successfully published magazines in 39 countries. Now retired, she divides her time between homes in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Stockholm, where her husband's family lives.
Thelma Mothershed-Wair
She graduated from college, then made a career of teaching. She lives in Belleville, Illinois, where she is a volunteer in a program for abused women.
Melba Pattillo Beals --- visit her website here
A Congressional Medal winner and member of the Little Rock Nine, Melba is a motivational keynote speaker and diversity trainer. She is an author and former journalist for People magazine and NBC and lives in San Francisco.
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Information taken from the official website of the Little Rock High School Fortieth Anniversary Commemoration.
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Girl on the outside, The
Author: Walter, Mildred Pitts
Eva Collins, selected as one of the first Black students to integrate Chatman
High School, is reluctantly befriended by Sophia Stuart, a white girl, when
Eva is trapped by a mob of angry whites.
New York: Scholastic, 1992, copyright 1982, 147 p.
Reviews for this Title:
Kirkus Reviews Based on an incident that occurred during the 1954 desegregation
of a Little Rock high school, this follows two girls through the last few days
of summer vacation and the opening of school. Sophia, a white senior, is fearful
and resentful of the coming invasion of her high school by nine black students.
Ending her summer job at the dime store, she keeps a black girl waiting while
she waits on whites who come in later. Atypically, Sophia has a journalist older
brother and an incipient beau, a college boy, both of whom favor integration--but
Sophia does not soften. As the days go by, she becomes more confused and jumpy,
as well as touchy toward the black stable hand and the family's black maid,
whose presence she has always taken for granted. Eva, one of the nine students
designated to switch from Carver to the white school, is a sophomore with average
marks but a firm understanding of what she's doing. She is also the girl Sophia
kept waiting at the store. Eva prepares for school calmly, sewing a dress for
the first day; but she becomes uneasy and uncertain as the Governor's speech,
the judge's decision, the arrival of the Guard (and of ugly out-of-town whites),
and the advice of NAACP lawyers keep changing the plans of her group. The only
one of the nine without a phone, Eva misses the last change of plans and shows
up at school. . . to be barred by the soldiers she thought were there to protect
her, and then surrounded by the angry crowd. At that point Sophia comes to her
defense and, though both girls are spit upon, helps her escape by bus. In reality,
as Walter's afterword notes, it was a nonsouthern white teacher from a Little
Rock black college who befriended the trapped girl. The change makes a better
idea for a YA novel, and Walter shows some understanding of both girls' feelings
and situations. She never goes beyond predictable portrayals of either, though,
and she doesn't handle the tension of the situation nearly as compellingly as
have non-fiction chroniclers of desegregation struggles. So, if subject-interest
suggests a fictional version, this will serve--but it's not a strong novel.
(Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 1982)
Features about this author or title:
1. Author Biographies for Young Adults - Mildred Pitts Walter
Author Web Sites:
1. About Mildred Pitts Walter : Features a biography of the author.
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0590460919 : Paperback - Mass Market
0606058451 : DEMCO Turtleback - Juvenile
0688014380 : Reinforced binding - Juvenile
Credits:
• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• MetaMetrics, Inc.
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 081098