ScoopJohnD
09-26-2007, 10:47 PM
I didn't realize the anniversary until I read the following editorial in the Daily News, and I feel bad that I didn't. It's a day that everyone should remember......
LITTLE ROCK 9, AT 50
Absurd. Barely imaginable. But it happened, 50 years ago, within living memory of many of us in Little Rock--where it took bayonet-fixed troops from the 101st Airborne, ordered into Jim Crow Arkansas by President Dwight Eisenhower, to ensure that nine frightened black children could merely attend public school.
September 25, 1957, was a landmark day in American history, a milestone in the country's civil rights movement, tumultuously pivotal at the time,its echoes still ringing down the years.
Yesterday, those nine kids came back to visit Central High School, and their names are well worth remembering because of the tremendous impact their courage and dignity had on the nation. They are: Melba Patillo Beals, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls Lanier, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, Minnijean Brown Trickey, and Thelma Mothershed Wair.
We still have our bad moments--see occasional current events--but yesterday, Little Rock turned out to applaud the nine. Sometimes we can legitimately tell ourselves that we've all come a very long way, with a long way still to go. And we can, a half-century later, draw inspiration from the bravery of those kids, and from the fortitude of a President who declined to permit the nation's basest sentiments to stand without challenge.
I highly recommend the book 'Warriors Don't Cry' which was written by the first name on the list, Melba Patillo Beals. It's her account, taken from diaries she wrote as a 16 year old, her memories, scrapbooks made by her relatives etc. It is moving, riveting, and one of the most amazing books I've ever read.
LITTLE ROCK 9, AT 50
Absurd. Barely imaginable. But it happened, 50 years ago, within living memory of many of us in Little Rock--where it took bayonet-fixed troops from the 101st Airborne, ordered into Jim Crow Arkansas by President Dwight Eisenhower, to ensure that nine frightened black children could merely attend public school.
September 25, 1957, was a landmark day in American history, a milestone in the country's civil rights movement, tumultuously pivotal at the time,its echoes still ringing down the years.
Yesterday, those nine kids came back to visit Central High School, and their names are well worth remembering because of the tremendous impact their courage and dignity had on the nation. They are: Melba Patillo Beals, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls Lanier, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, Minnijean Brown Trickey, and Thelma Mothershed Wair.
We still have our bad moments--see occasional current events--but yesterday, Little Rock turned out to applaud the nine. Sometimes we can legitimately tell ourselves that we've all come a very long way, with a long way still to go. And we can, a half-century later, draw inspiration from the bravery of those kids, and from the fortitude of a President who declined to permit the nation's basest sentiments to stand without challenge.
I highly recommend the book 'Warriors Don't Cry' which was written by the first name on the list, Melba Patillo Beals. It's her account, taken from diaries she wrote as a 16 year old, her memories, scrapbooks made by her relatives etc. It is moving, riveting, and one of the most amazing books I've ever read.