Columnist Bernie Hayes
I have mixed feelings about the heritage of the group of African-American students who attempted to desegregate the all-white Central High School in Little Rock a half-century ago.
In 1957, the school became an image of the struggles and hopes of the Civil Rights Movement. The whole world watched as Thelma Mothershed, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Gloria Ray, Jefferson Thomas, Melba Pattillo, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls and Ernest Green were prevented from entering the building by an angry mob of whites outside the school.
Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus defied the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling and ordered the National Guard to prevent the nine teenagers from attending classes. After many trials and tribulations, the students were finally admitted and each has become a model of success and accomplishment.
What a loss this nation would have suffered if these courageous and heroic individuals would have not pursued their dreams. I cannot envision the stresses they were associated with, being subjected to an educational agenda that had as its goal the prevention of assimilation into what the whites considered their institution of academic success.
One of the Little Rock 9, Thelma Jean Mothershed Wair, lives in the St. Louis area. She graduated from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1964 with a BA in home economics and earned her MS in Guidance and Counseling Education in 1970. In 1985, she received an administrative certificate in education from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. She was a counselor and taught home economics in District 189 in the East St. Louis school system for 28 years before retiring in 1994.
In an interview in 1991, Mrs. Wair told me that she was surprised at the resistance and hatred from parents and the community, but she is proud of her determination to attend Central and is rewarded knowing that she opened the doors for so many that followed.
The whites in Little Rock had assumed the power to claim the land and all of the other resources, and had framed the culture and identity of whom they regarded as Americans. Both historically and in contemporary society, the relationships between racial and ethnic groups in this country are framed within a context of unequal power.
On September 23, the Little Rock 9 revisited Central High School, and what they saw was shocking and demoralizing. The HBO documentary film Little Rock Central High: 50 Years Later looks at racial equality, education and class at the landmark high school today, where educational equality remains elusive. After viewing the film, I was depressed. Apparently integrating into Central High School meant nothing for the advancement or education of African-American students. The advanced and accelerated programs are nearly all white, with only a very few exceptions. In reality, Little Rock’s Central High School is two separate schools. A wonderful, healthy learning environment for the white students, and a remedial, hip-hop training ground for blacks.
The HBO piece focussed on several white students and one black student who are on paths to success, and African-American students who are struggling with teenage pregnancies or other issues. They appear to be segregated, not by law, but by tradition, and this reality troubled me greatly. Another one of the Little Rock 9, Minnijean Brown-Trickey, spoke to a class at Central and was very upset and uncomfortable with what she discovered about the regression of the school and the Little Rock school system.
It makes my heart sick to see the disparity in the city’s school system. The staff of Central seem to suggest that if minorities want to become successful students, they must reject their own culture and adopt the behavior and values of the dominant culture. Someone should investigate and chronicle the tension and social distance felt between African Americans and whites at Central High School today. The central issue remains one of justice.
We understand that culture, language and religion are distinct qualities that act in different ways to connect African Americans and whites and to distinguish them from one another. But does this reflect the decline in African-American parental involvement? Only one black parent was featured in the HBO piece.
The Little Rock 9 made sacrifices we can only imagine. They put their lives on the line, and for what?
I can be reached by fax at (314) 837-3369 or by e-mail at: berhay@swbell.net.