Eckford, age 15, pursued by a mob, with Hazel Massery directly behind, at Little Rock Central High School on the first day of the school year, September 4, 1957.
Elizabeth Ann Eckford (born October 4, 1941)[1] is an American civil rights activist and one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African American students who, in 1957, were the first black students ever to attend classes at the previously all-white Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The integration came as a result of the 1954 United States Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education. Eckford's public ordeal was captured by press photographers on the morning of September 4, 1957, after she was prevented from entering the school by the Arkansas National Guard. A dramatic snapshot by Will Counts of the Arkansas Democrat showed the young girl being followed and threatened by an angry white mob; this and other photos of the day's startling events were circulated around the US and the world by the press.[2]
Counts's image was the unanimous selection by the Pulitzer jury for a 1958 Pulitzer Prize, but since the story had earned then-rival Arkansas Gazette two other Pulitzer Prizes already, the Pulitzer board awarded the prize to another photographer for a pleasant photograph of a two-year-old boy in Washington, D.C. A different photo taken by Counts of Alex Wilson, a black reporter for the Memphis Tri-State Defender being beaten by the angry mob in Little Rock the same day, was chosen as the "News Picture of the Year" for 1957 by the National Press Photographers Association. This image by Counts prompted President Dwight D. Eisenhower to send federal troops to Little Rock.[3]
Eckford only spent one year at Little Rock Central High where she and the other black students were tormented throughout. In the years since, she has struggled through life, and twice attempted suicide.[4] She was subsequently diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.[4]
Fifteen-year-old Eckford tried to enter the school, while soldiers of the National Guard, under orders from Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, stepped in her way to prevent her from entering. Eventually, she gave up and tried to flee to a bus stop through the mob of segregationists who surrounded and threatened to lynch her.[5] Once Eckford got to the bus stop, she couldn't stop crying. A reporter, Benjamin Fine, having in mind his own 15-year-old daughter, sat down next to Eckford. He tried to comfort her and told her, "don't let them see you cry."[6] Soon, she was also protected by a white woman named Grace Lorch who escorted her onto a city bus.[7]
The original plan was to have the nine children arrive together, but when the meeting place was changed the night before, the Eckford family's lack of a telephone left Elizabeth uninformed of the change.[8] Instructions were given by Daisy Bates, a strong activist for desegregation, for the nine students to wait for her so that they could all walk together to the rear entrance of the school.[9] This last-minute change caused Elizabeth to be the first to take a different route to school, walking up to the front entrance completely alone. Elizabeth Eckford's family was not informed of the meeting and didn't know that the school board asked the parents to accompany her. Also, Eckford rode a public bus alone to the segregated school. That day, Elizabeth wore a starched black-and-white dress, and she covered her face under black sunglasses. Elizabeth also held her school book in her hand. As she walked toward the school, Elizabeth was surrounded by a crowd of armed guards and a mob of people, and she did not see any black faces. The mob included men, women, and teenagers (white students) who opposed integration. The white teenagers chanted "Two, four, six, eight, we ain't gonna integrate." Elizabeth attempted to go into the school through the mob but was denied entrance. Eckford walked to a bus bench at the end of the block. Eckford described her experience:
I stood looking at the school— it looked so big! Just then the guards let some white students through. The crowd was quiet. I guess they were waiting to see what was going to happen. When I was able to steady my knees, I walked up to the guard who had let the white students in. He didn't move. When I tried to squeeze past him, he raised his bayonet, and then the other guards moved in and they raised their bayonets. They glared at me with a mean look and I was very frightened and didn't know what to do. I turned around and the crowd came toward me. They moved closer and closer. Somebody started yelling, "Drag her over this tree! Let's take care of that nigger!"[10]
Even though Elizabeth Eckford would one day be known as a member of the Little Rock Nine, at this point in the school day, she was all alone, making her the first African-American student to integrate a white southern high school.[5]
For the next two weeks, the Little Rock Nine stayed home to study instead of going to the Little Rock Central High School. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was reluctant to do anything about the mob or the rioting. Eisenhower summoned Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas to intervene and asked for the withdrawal of all troops from the high school after Elizabeth Eckford's experience attempting to enter the school the first time.[11]
On September 23, 1957, the Little Rock Nine approached Central High again, and Elizabeth Eckford along with the other eight students, accompanied by city policemen, were let into the high school through a side door. The reaction from the mob was described as follows:
The crowd let out a roar of rage. "They've gone in," a man shouted...Once the Little Rock Nine entered the school, they were separated. The mob infiltrated the school, and under threats of death, the nine were taken to the principal's office. One of the nine overheard officials saying "We may have to let the mob have one of those kids, so's we can distract them long enough to get the others out."[12]
The Arkansas National Guard, under orders from the governor, and an angry mob of about 400 surrounded the school and prevented them from going in. On September 23, 1957, a mob of about 1000 people surrounded the school again as the students attempted to enter. The following day, President Dwight D. Eisenhower took control of the Arkansas National Guard from the governor and sent the 101st Airborne Division to accompany the students to school for protection. Both federal troops and federalized National Guardsmen were deployed at the school for the entirety of the school year, although they were unable to prevent incidents of violence against the group inside, such as Eckford being thrown down a flight of stairs.[citation needed]
All of the city's high schools were closed the following year, so Eckford did not graduate from Central High School. However, she had taken correspondence and night courses garnering enough credits for her high school diploma.[8] In 1958, Eckford and the rest of the Little Rock Nine were awarded the Spingarn Medal by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as was Ms. Bates.[citation needed]
Eckford served in the United States Army for five years, first as a pay clerk, and then as an information specialist. She also wrote for the Fort McClellan (Alabama) and the Fort Benjamin Harrison (Indiana) newspapers. After that, she has worked as a waitress, history teacher, welfare worker, unemployment and employment interviewer, and a military reporter. In 2007, she was working as a probation officer in Little Rock.[16]
In 1997, she shared the Father Joseph Biltz Award—presented by the National Conference for Community and Justice—with Hazel Bryan Massery, a then-segregationist student at Central High School who appeared in several of the 1957 photographs screaming at the young Elizabeth. During the reconciliation rally of 1997, the two women made speeches together.[17] But later their friendship broke up, with Eckford reflecting, "[Hazel] wanted me to be cured and be over it and for this not to go on anymore. She wanted me to be less uncomfortable so that she wouldn't feel responsible."[5] In 1999, President Bill Clinton presented the nation's highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal, to the members of the Little Rock Nine.[18]
On the morning of January 1, 2003, one of Eckford's two sons, Erin Eckford, age 26, was shot and killed by police in Little Rock.[19] The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that the police officers had unsuccessfully tried to disarm him with a beanbag round after he had fired several shots from his rifle. When Eckford pointed his rifle towards them, the police officers shot him. His mother feared that his death was "suicide by police". Erin, she said, had suffered from mental illness but had been off his prescribed medication for several years. The newspaper later reported that prosecutors investigating the fatal shooting had decided that the police officers concerned were justified in shooting Eckford.[citation needed]
In 2018, 60 years after leaving Little Rock Central High, Eckford told her story in her first autobiography, The Worst First Day: Bullied While Desegregating Little Rock Central High. The book was coauthored with Dr. Eurydice Stanley and Grace Stanley of Pensacola, Florida. Grace was 15 years old when she worked on the project, the same age Eckford was when she desegregated Central High. The Worst First Day tells Eckford's experiences in verse. It features the graphic artwork of Rachel Gibson and the photography of Will Counts. Eckford traveled to New Zealand in 2019 to teach American civil rights history to more than 4,000 students with Dr. Stanley at the request of high school teacher Roydon Agent, author of Public Image, Private Shame.
On November 19, 2022, Elizabeth Eckford spoke at the keel-laying ceremony of the attack submarineUSS Arkansas (SSN-800) at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia, after she and Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls LaNier and Thelma Mothershed-Wair etched their initials onto metal plates that were then welded onto the keel. The plates will remain affixed to the submarine throughout its life. Melba Pattillo Beals and Minnijean Brown-Trickey were also named sponsors of the ship, and all members of the Little Rock Nine were honored. Eckford said “(Former Navy) Secretary Ray Mabus asked us to be supporters of the ship and its crew. I signed on to be a foster grandmother...President Eisenhower sent 1,000 paratroopers to Little Rock to disperse a mob, bring order, and they made it possible for us to enter Central High School. From that point, I’ve had very high regard for specially trained forces.”[20]
↑ The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. "Elizabeth Ann Eckford (1941-)." encyclopediaofarkansas.net. National Park Service: Central High School National Historic Site. Web. 15 May 2015.
Roberts, Gene; Klibanoff, Hank (2007). The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation (2007ed.). Vintage. ISBN978-0-679-73565-6.
1Eckford, Elizabeth; Stanley, Eurydice; Stanley, Grace (2018). The Worst First Day: Bullied While Desegregating Little Rock Central High. Lamp Press. ISBN9780999766170.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Orval Eugene Faubus was an American politician who served as the 36th Governor of Arkansas from 1955 to 1967, as a member of the Democratic Party. In 1957, he refused to comply with a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, and ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent black students from attending Little Rock Central High School. This event became known as the Little Rock Crisis. He was elected to six two-year terms as governor.
Little Rock Central High School (LRCH) is an accredited comprehensive public high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States. The school was the site of the Little Rock Crisis in 1957 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation by race in public schools was unconstitutional three years earlier. This was during the period of heightened activism in the civil rights movement.
Daisy Bates was an American civil rights activist, publisher, journalist, and lecturer who played a leading role in the Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957.
Terrence James Roberts is one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who, in 1957, were the first black students ever to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1999, he and the other people of the Little Rock Nine were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bill Clinton.
Jefferson Allison Thomas was one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who, in 1957, were the first black students ever to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1999, Thomas and the other students of the Little Rock Nine were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bill Clinton.
Carlotta Walls LaNier is the youngest of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who, in 1957, were the first black students ever to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States. She was the first black female to graduate from Central High School. In 1999, LaNier and the rest of the Little Rock Nine were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bill Clinton. LaNier was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2004 and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2015.
Minnijean Brown-Trickey is an American political figure who was a member of the Little Rock Nine, a group of nine African American teenagers who integrated Little Rock Central High School. The integration followed the Brown v. Board of Education decision which required public schools to be desegregated.
Gloria Cecelia Ray Karlmark is a member of the Little Rock Nine, the nine African-American students who desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. One of the three children of Harvey C. and Julia Miller Ray, she was 15 when she attempted to enter Little Rock Central High School where she was barred from entering by the Arkansas National Guard, under the order of Governor Orval Faubus who opposed integration. They returned to the school weeks later protected by federal troops.
Ronald Norwood Davies was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota. He is best known for his role in the Little Rock Integration Crisis in the fall of 1957. Davies ordered the desegregation of the previously all-white Little Rock Central High.
Melba Joy Patillo Beals is an American journalist and educator who was a member of the Little Rock Nine, a group of black students who were the first to racially integrate Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Thelma Mothershed-Wair is the eldest member of the Little Rock Nine group who attended Little Rock's Central High School following the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education court case. The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, then Governor of Arkansas. They then attended after the intervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Hazel Bryan Massery is an American former anti-integration activist who was a student at Little Rock Central High School during the Civil Rights Movement. She was depicted in an iconic photograph taken by photojournalist Will Counts in 1957 showing her shouting at Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine, during the Little Rock Crisis.
Elizabeth Paisley Huckaby was an educator.
The Daisy Bates House is a historic house at 1207 West 28th Street in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. It is significant as the home of Arkansas NAACP president Daisy Bates, and for its use as a command post for those working to desegregate the Little Rock Central High School during the desegregation crisis of 1957–1958. It was a sanctuary for the nine students involved. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2001.
The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. They then attended after the intervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Grace Lonergan Lorch was a teacher and civil rights activist best known for her work as a white escort for the Little Rock Nine.
Vivion Mercer Lenon Brewer was an American desegregationist, most notable for being a founding member of the Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools (WEC) in 1958 during the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
In the United States, school integration is the process of ending race-based segregation within American public and private schools. Racial segregation in schools existed throughout most of American history and remains an issue in contemporary education. During the Civil Rights Movement school integration became a priority, but since then de facto segregation has again become prevalent.
Will Counts (Ira Wilmer Counts Jr.; August 24, 1931—October 6, 2001) was an American photojournalist most renowned for drawing the nation's attention to the desegregation crisis that was happening at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. Documenting the integration effort in the 1950s, he captured the harassment and violence that African Americans in the South were facing at this time. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for these photographs.
African Americans have played an essential role in the history of Arkansas, but their role has often been marginalized as they confronted a society and polity controlled by white supremacists. During the slavery era to 1865, they were considered property and were subjected to the harsh conditions of forced labor. After the Civil War and the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Reconstuction Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, African Americans gained their freedom and the right to vote. However, the rise of Jim Crow laws in the 1890s and early 1900s led to a period of segregation and discrimination that lasted into the 1960s. Most were farmers, working their own property or poor sharecroppers on white-owned land, or very poor day laborers. By World War I, there was steady emigration from farms to nearby cities such as Little Rock and Memphis, as well as to St. Louis and Chicago.
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