Remembering the Little Rock Nine on their 63rd Commemoration

by The Black Wall Street Times September 25, 2020Updated September 16, 2022

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By BWSTimes Staff

63-years ago today, nine Black students courageously walked into Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Federal military troops escorted them amid the sea of national press and an angry white mob, which included some of their White peers who were soon to become their classmates.

It was a test of Brown v. Board of Education; and boiling at the brim, southern White Americans who were terrified of the idea that Black children would attend school with theirs and have the same opportunities to become successful.

While 750 students choose to boycott getting an education because they didn’t want to go to school with Blacks, Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson Thomas, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Minnijean Brown, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Thelma Mothershed, and Melba Pattillo Beals, walked into the doors of opportunity and became known as the Little Rock Nine.

Even a bomb threat reported later that day wouldn’t deter them from scholarship, nor the fire alarm pulled.

It’s incredible to think how far we’ve come as an American society; however, with the recent miscarriage of justice for Breonna Taylor’s family and community and the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that moral justice is on the November ballot.

So, as we remember the 63rd Commemoration of the Little Rock Nine, make sure your voter registration is up to date.

To register to vote or to update your registration, click here: www.vote.gov