Black History
Here is the Place Where History Sat
The individual names of the nine Black students who enrolled at all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas 62 years ago may not readily come to mind, but the impact of their collective courage is still recognized around the world. Decades later, the Little Rock Nine remain among the icons of the Civil Rights Movement especially on September 25th, the day the teenagers arrived at Central High escorted by the Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
The students had attempted to desegregate the school earlier that September but were prevented from doing so by the National Guard which had been called in by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, a staunch segregationist. There were hundreds of angry white protesters as the students arrived on September 4th accompanied by a coalition of ministers. Elizabeth Eckford, one of the teenagers, had not been informed of the plan because she and her family did not have a telephone. Elizabeth went to school that morning alone, and what she faced is seared into the minds of millions through a photo that captured the angry, jeering mob.
In a 1997 interview with Facing History and Ourselves, Eckford shared the following:
“On the morning of September 4th, my mother was doing what she usually did. My mother was making sure everybody’s hair looked right and everybody had their lunch money and their notebooks and things. But she did finally get quiet and we had family prayer. I remember my father walking back and forth. My father worked at night and normally he would have been asleep at that time, but he was awake and he was walking back and forth chomping on cigar that wasn’t lit.”
“I expected that I would go to school as before on a city bus. So, I walked a few blocks to the bus stop, got on the bus, and rode to within two blocks of the school. I got off the bus and I noticed along the street that there were many more cars than usual. And I remember hearing the murmur of a crowd. But, when I got to the corner where the school was, I was reassured seeing these soldiers circling the school grounds. And I saw students going to school. I saw the guards break ranks as students approached the sidewalks so that they could pass through to get to school. And I approached the guard at the corner as I had seen some other students do and they closed ranks. So, I thought; ‘Maybe I am not supposed to enter at this point.’ So, I walked further down the line of guards to where there was another sidewalk and I attempted to pass through there. But when I stepped up, they crossed rifles. And again I said to myself; ‘So maybe I’m supposed to go down to where the main entrance is.’ So, I walked toward the center of the street and when I got to about the middle and I approached the guard he directed me across the street into the crowd. It was only then that I realized that they were barring me, that I wouldn’t go to school.”
Later that month Eckford and the other students integrated Central High, but it was only after President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troopers to Little Rock to escort them.
Last year students at Central High School along with the Central High Memory Project, the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Project and others dedicated the Elizabeth Eckford Commemorative Bench. The bench is a replica of the original bench where Eckford sat on September 4th as she sought a place to retreat from the mob.
Elizabeth Eckford, Minnijean Brown, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, and Carlotta Walls are eight of the Little Rock Nine and are still living. Jefferson Thomas passed away in 2010 from pancreatic cancer. Daisy Gaston Bates, the then-NAACP President for Arkansas and chaperone of the teenagers, is also deceased.
In Arkansas a formerly all-Black school, Ouachita County Training School, has launched a national fundraising effort to restore the campus following its designation as a site on the National Register of Historic Places. One of the first corporate donations to OCTS, located in Bearden, Arkansas, came from the Katherine Anthony Foundation.
Anthony’s nephew, Steve, and CEO of Anthony Timberlands, presented a $10,000 check to the historic committee.
“We are happy to support the work of the Greater Bradley District Association and the Ouachita County Training School committee in their efforts to maintain the infrastructure and grounds of the training school, which is such an important part of the Bearden community,” Anthony said.
The National Park Service listed OCTS on the prestigious register in 2023.
“Since we received the news, we have been excited and motivated to raise the fund necessary to preserve this part of our history!” Virginia Ashley, committee president said. “We recognize the pivotal role OCTS played in educating several generations of young people who started right here and went on to contribute greatly to the Black middle class and the world.”
The gift of education
For education advocates, December holds a special place in American history. During the Christmas Season in 1952, the Supreme Court first heard arguments to eliminate segregation in the nation’s public schools. But, it took two more years before the Court issued its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, declaring segregation unconstitutional.
During the 1950s, OCTS educated Black students in the small southern town south of Little Rock, which became known internationally for The Little Rock Nine and their efforts to integrate Central High School. In Bearden, several Rosenwald Schools had consolidated to create the larger OCTS campus that educated students from the first through the 12th grades.
“I have such wonderful memories of my days as a student at OCTS,” recalled Pearlie Newton, a retired educator and executive director of the OCTS historic committee. “My dad helped pour concrete at the campus, my husband and I met there and it was in one of the classrooms that my goal to become an educator took shape.”
Despite the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision eliminating “separate but equal” schools, OCTS remained segregated until 1971 when it merged with the white school district in the area. An association of Black Baptist churches known as the Greater Bradley District Association purchased the campus for use as its headquarters.
Pastor and Association Moderator, Verna Thompson, said, “We are excited about the renovation and look forward to holding our church services and meetings in a modernized facility that holds so much historic significance.”
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