Essay: Elizabeth Eckford

Elizabeth Eckford
Elizabeth Eckford was associated with the Little Rock 9. The Little Rock 9 were 9 black kids who were the first to attend Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education was ruled to where segregation in schools is deemed unconstitutional. Well these 9 kids went to attend Little Rock Central Highschool and needless to say the all white kids and community had a problem with it. This sparked a fire that we all still feel the heat off of. So naturally Elizabeth Eckford wanted to push against the segregation barrier and she played a big role in knocking it down. Eventually the schools shut down for a year which was known as the “Lost Year” but that wasn’t holding Eckford back as she went and took night classes and got enough classes to receive her diploma and proved the predigest state of America wrong at the time. She was only 15 at the time she started fighting for the desegregation effort and despite her age, she did as much or more than those who were grown adults and displayed bravery and dignity that this country will not see again.
Faubus and other segregationist ended up calling in 250 national guardsman to prevent any black kids from walking through the doors of Little Rock Central High School. They told stories of how the whites and blacks were forming gangs and were gonna have an all out brawl between the two if they integrated. This was just to sway a judge in his favor; because who wants kids ganging up getting ready to kill each other over a color. Daisy Bates, President of the NAACP, was in her home watching TV and could not believe what was going on in Little Rock, Arkansas. Despite the warning that the school board gave out advising any black students to not try an attend Little Rock Central , or any white school for that matter was kicked to the curb as Ronald Davies; a Federal Judge; demanded that no matter what; heaven or hell; that the desegregation process continue. Integration in Little Rock, Arkansas could no longer be stopped and now they were on the downside of a mountain that was sure enough hard to climb for any black person at the time.
President Eisenhower, who was hesitant to say the least, said to the news that “I can’t imagine any set of circumstances that would ever induce me to send Federal troops into a Federal Court and into any area to enforce the orders of a Federal Court, because I believe that the common sense of America will never require it.” But before long on September 24, 1957, Eisenhower demanded that 1,000 soldiers from the Screaming Eagles 101st Airborne Division go to Little Rock, Arkansas and fix the problem at hand. Following that, Eisenhower had all 10,000 members of the National Guard at Arkansas, placed under control of the one and only federal government. The night of all this, Eisenhower had to go on national tv and explain himself to all of America. Elizabeth Eckford once said, “If we have honestly acknowledged our painful, but shared past, then- we can have reconciliation.” The results of what they all fought for are shown today. We have equal pay for blacks and whites. We have integrated schools. And we have interracial relationships, to go along with that there are plenty of interracial friendships.