Why Is The Little Rock Nine Important

The Little Rock Nine “Somewhere along the line [staying at Central High] became an obligation. I realized that what we were doing was not for ourselves.” (Elizabeth Eckford, One of the “Little Rock Nine”). Following the Supreme Court’s Brown V Board of Education decision, schools in the South fought hard to keep African American students out of white schools. The most important case involved Little Rock’s Central High School. Nine African American students (The Little Rock Nine) helped mold schools in America by being courageous and persevering through racism, discrimination, and segregation. The greatest Supreme Court case of the 20th Century, Brown V Board of Education, occurred in the year 1954. The case stated that the racial segregation
“Melba Pattillo, a 15 year old who was one of the nine, remembered a confrontation with a black adult at church on Sunday: “I was startled when a woman I’d seen often enough but didn’t really know began lecturing me. For a moment, I feared she was going to haul off and hit me. She was beside herself with anger. I could barely get my good morning in because she was talking very loud, attracting attention as she told me I was too fancy for my britches and that other people in our community would pay for my uppity need to be with white folks” (Melba Pattilo). The Little Rock still pushed through the adversity to reach the big goal. The nine black students prepared to enter Central High on September 4, 1957. (Cozzens
Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to escort the nine to classes through the hall. The mob surrounded the building once again and beat several black reporters who were there to cover the entering of the children. The mob went crazy when they were informed that Eisenhower’s troops escorted the students into the building. Mothers yelled to their children, “Come Out! Don’t stay in there with those niggers!” On the inside of Central High school, the white kids made fun of the nine students, spit on them, tripped them and yelled insults to them. The students had to leave during the day. The hatred worsened as the year progressed. The black boys were beat up, black students’ lockers were destroyed and the white students threw flaming balls of paper at the black students in the bathroom. Activated sticks of dynamite were thrown at Melba Pattilo, she was stabbed, and they sprayed acid in her eyes. The acid was so strong that if the 101st guard had not splashed the water on her face immediately, she would have been blind for the rest of her