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Grades 4-6

A Long, Hard Trip to School

Andrea Delbanco

Elizabeth Eckford's first day of high school was anything but ordinary. Though the day took place 50 years ago this month, Eckford still remembers every detail. Students screamed and taunted her as she tried to enter Central High School, in Little Rock, Arkansas. An angry mob pushed her down the stairs and spit on her. "People in the crowd were threatening to kill me," Eckford told TFK. "They were so angry that I would dare to try to go to that school."

Why all the fury? It was all because of Eckford's skin color. She was one of the first black students to enroll at Central High. In the 1950s, many people opposed the racial integration of schools. That fateful first day at Central High set off a chain of events that changed history.

Battle on the School Ground

It was 1957 when Eckford and eight other black students, who became known as the Little Rock Nine, enrolled at all-white Central High. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that black and white students could no longer be forced to attend separate, or segregated, schools. The landmark decision, called Brown v. Board of Education, made school segregation illegal nationwide.

But Arkansas's governor, Orval Faubus, did not want black and white students to attend the same public schools. Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to stop the Nine from entering the school.

Little Rock police had to protect the black students from angry white mobs. "The police saved our lives," says Eckford. After a few weeks, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent 1,000 armed soldiers to the scene. It took several scary tries, but the Little Rock Nine finally attended a full day of classes at Central High on September 25, 1957.

Making the Milestone

Little Rock will observe the 50th anniversary all month. "We will look back at what happened in 1957, look at where we are today and talk about where we want to be and what we need to continue to do," says Scott Carter of the Central High School 50th Anniversary Commission.

Little Rock's public schools did not become fully integrated until 1972. Now, discrimination is illegal in all areas, not just in schools. But that doesn't mean discrimination has disappeared. "We've certainly made progress as far as race relations," says Carter. "But we are not perfect, in Little Rock or as an entire society."

Eckford agrees. "I'm very grateful for the changes that the civil rights movement brought," she says. "But there is still more work to be done."

Eckford believes that change can begin with a single act of kindness. "My own experience shows how powerful it is when someone treats you with dignity while other people are treating you badly or turning their backs," she says. "If you just reach out in friendship to that person, it could help them live another day."

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