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Little Rock Nine
The woman in this photo is Elizabeth Eckford and is being escorted by federal troops
The Little Rock Nine were escorted into the school and went through the school year with enduring the verbal abuse and little pyhsical contact.
The Little Rock Nine was a group of students who enrolled in Central High school in 1957. The next day Woodrow Mann, mayor of Little Rock asked president Eisenhower to send federal troops to protect the Little Rock Nine.
On September 24th, Eisenhower ordered 10,000 National Guardsmen and deployed the 101st airbourne division to Little Rock . The airbourne division took action right away and the Little Rock Nine went to school the next day .
Elizabeth Eckford was born on October 4, 1941, to Oscar and Birdie Eckford, and is one of six children. Her father worked nights as a dining car maintenance worker for the Missouri Pacific Railroad’s Little Rock station. Her mother taught at the segregated state school for blind and deaf children, instructing them in how to wash and iron for themselves.
In 1999, President Bill Clinton presented the nation’s highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal, to the members of the Little Rock Nine. She is currently a probation officer in Little Rock and is the mother of two sons.
