Little Rock Nine

 

After years of fighting for their Civil rights, black people had succeeded in many ways, one of

them was that on 1954 the law was changed and segregation in schools became against the Law. “All black” and “all white” schools were not permitted anymore, they had to study under same roof as a sign of equality.

But who would have thought, hate against black people was so strong in Arkansas that Governor himself, Orval Faubus, sent the national guard to stop the 9 young black students from entering Central High School. The highest authority of the state was breaking the law, school had to close for a while because of this, but this wasn't judged by the other parents, no one wanted their children to share schools with negros.

Something we didn’t read in our book was that Martin Luther King Jr, was directly involved on fixing this situation “take a strong forthright stand in the Little Rock situation.” King told the president that if the federal government did not take a stand against the injustice it would “set the process of integration back fifty years. This is a great opportunity for you and the federal government to back up the longings and aspirations of millions of peoples of good will and make law and order a reality” (King, 9 September 1957).  To what President Eisenhower answered by sending army troops to protect the 9 black students and supporting desegregation.  

Imagine having to be escorted to classes by 1000 army men because of your skin color, and knowing that if it wasn’t for them the crowd that gathered everyday outside Central High School could have hurt you, maybe even kill you. I can’t imagine myself on that situation, i think i would’ve been scared and intimidated by all the hate and the constant threat of being hurt.

This was only one of many civil rights fights that were happening at the same time through those years, there are many other unknown heroes that deserve all our respect for their strength and their will to fight and never give up until their civil rights were established.

Here is a video about Little Rock Nine's situation.

How would you feel if you were one of them? I think it must have been really hard to be in their shoes, but for them, it was worth it.