Elizabeth Eckford was one of the Little Rock Nine

Little Rock Nine

The Little Rock Nine was a group of African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The ensuing Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, and then...

, a group of African-American students who, in 1957, were the first black students ever to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock

Little Rock, Arkansas

Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...

, Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

. The integration came as a result of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

Early life and education

Elizabeth Eckford was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. Oscar and Birdie Eckford were her parents. She was one of six children. Her father worked nights as a dining car maintenance worker for the Missouri Pacific Railroad

Missouri Pacific Railroad

The Missouri Pacific Railroad , also known as the MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway , Texas and Pacific...

’s Little Rock station. Her mother taught at a segregated state school for blind and deaf children, instructing them how to wash and iron clothes.

Elizabeth Eckford first attended Horace Mann

Horace Mann

Horace Mann was an American education reformer, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1827 to 1833. He served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1834 to 1837. In 1848, after serving as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education since its creation, he was...

 High School in Little Rock.

Role in desegregation

On September 4, 1957, Eckford and eight other African American students (known as the Little Rock Nine

Little Rock Nine

The Little Rock Nine was a group of African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The ensuing Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, and then...

) made a successful attempt to enter Little Rock Central High School, which had been segregated

Racial segregation in the United States

Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...

. With the complicity of the National Guard, an angry mob

Ochlocracy

Ochlocracy or mob rule is government by mob or a mass of people, or the intimidation of legitimate authorities.As a pejorative for majoritarianism, it is akin to the Latin phrase mobile vulgus meaning "the fickle crowd", from which the English term "mob" was originally derived in the...

 of about 400 surrounded the school.

As fifteen-year-old Eckford tried to enter the school, soldiers of the National Guard, under orders from Arkansas Governor Faubus, would step in her way to prevent her from entering. Eventually, she tried to approach a bus stop through the mob of segregationists who surrounded her and threatened to lynch

Lynching

Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...

 her. Once Eckford got to the bus stop, she couldn't stop crying. A reporter, Benjamin Fine

Benjamin Fine

Benjamin Fine was an American journalist and author. He worked at The New York Times from 1938 to 1958. Fine was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts and died while on vacation in Puson, South Korea.- Early years :...

, having in mind his own 15-year-old daughter and sat down next to Eckford. He tried to comfort her and told her, "don't let them see you cry." Soon, she was also protected by a white woman named Grace Lorch

Grace Lorch

Grace Lonergan Lorch was a teacher and civil rights activist best known for her work as a white escort for the Little Rock Nine....

 who escorted her home.

The plan was to have the nine children arrive together, but when the meeting place was changed the night before, the Eckford family's lack of a telephone left Elizabeth uninformed of the change. Instructions were given by Daisy Bates

Daisy Bates (civil rights activist)

Daisy Lee Gatson Bates was an American civil rights activist, publisher and writer who played a leading role in the Little Rock integration crisis of 1957....

, a strong activist for desegregation, for the nine students to wait for her so that they could all walk together to the rear entrance of the school. This last minute change caused Elizabeth to be the first to arrive at the school, walking up to the front entrance completely alone. Even though Elizabeth Eckford would one day be known as a member of the Little Rock Nine, at this point in the school day, she was all alone, making her the first colored student to integrate a white southern high school.

The National Guard were removed, and the protection of the students left to the local police. On September 23, 1957, a mob of about 1000 people surrounded the school as the students attempted to enter. The following day, President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

 sent U.S. Army troops to accompany the students to school for protection. The troops were stationed at the school for the entire school year, although they were unable to prevent incidents of violence, such as when Eckford was thrown down a flight of stairs.

All of the city’s high schools were closed the following year, so Eckford did not graduate from Central High School. However, she had taken correspondence and night courses garnering enough credits for her high school diploma. In 1958, Eckford and the rest of the Little Rock Nine were awarded the Spingarn Medal

Spingarn Medal

The Spingarn Medal is awarded annually by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for outstanding achievement by an African American....

 by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...

 (NAACP), as was Ms. Bates.

Later life

Eckford was accepted by Knox College in Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, but she left, returning to be near her family in Little Rock. She would later attend Central State University

Central State University

Central State University, commonly referred to as "C-State", is a historically black university located in Wilberforce, Ohio, United States. It is the only public HBCU in Ohio.-History:...

 in Wilberforce

Wilberforce, Ohio

Wilberforce is a census-designated place in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,579 at the 2000 census. The community was named for the English statesman William Wilberforce, who worked for abolition of slavery and achieved the end of the slave trade in the United Kingdom and...

, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, where she earned a BA in history.

Eckford served in the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 for five years, first as a pay clerk, and then as an information specialist. She also wrote for the Fort McClellan

Fort McClellan

Fort McClellan, originally Camp McClellan, was a United States Army post located adjacent to the city of Anniston, Alabama. During World War II, it was one of the largest U.S. Army installations, training an estimated half-million troops...

 (Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

) and the Fort Benjamin Harrison

Fort Benjamin Harrison

Fort Benjamin Harrison was a U.S. Army post located in suburban Lawrence, Indiana, northeast of Indianapolis. It is named for the 23rd United States President, Benjamin Harrison. Land was purchased in 1903, with the post being officially named for President Harrison in honor of Indianapolis being...

 (Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

) newspapers. After that, she has worked as a waitress, history teacher, welfare worker, unemployment and employment interviewer, and a military reporter. She is a probation officer

Probation officer

Parole officers and probation officers play a role in criminal justice systems by supervising offenders released from incarceration or sentenced to non-custodial sanctions such as community service...

 in Little Rock.

In 1997, Eckford shared the Father Joseph Biltz Award (presented by the National Conference for Community and Justice

National Conference for Community and Justice

The National Conference for Community and Justice is a national, human relations, non-profit organization in the United States. Its mission is to fight bias, bigotry, and racism and promote understanding and respect through advocacy, conflict resolution, and education.The NCCJ was founded in 1927...

) with Hazel Bryan Massery, a segregationist classmate who appears in the Will Counts photograph screaming at Eckford. During the reconciliation rally of 1997, the two women made speeches together. In 1999, President Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

 presented the nation’s highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal, to the members of the Little Rock Nine.

On the morning of January 1, 2003, one of Eckford’s two sons, Erin Eckford, age 26, was shot and killed by police in Little Rock. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell...

reported that the police officers had unsuccessfully tried to disarm him with a beanbag round after he had fired several shots from his military style rifle. When Mr. Eckford pointed his rifle towards them, the police officers shot him. His mother feared that his death was “suicide by police”. Erin, she said, had suffered from mental illness

Mental illness

A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...

 but had been off his prescribed medication for several years. On June 18, 2003, the newspaper reported that prosecutors investigating the fatal shooting had decided that the police officers concerned were justified in shooting Mr. Eckford.

Further reading

• "Civil Rights", Kids Discover, Vol. 16, No. 1, January 2006. ISSN 1054-2868

External links

• Facing History and Ourselves
• US Information Agency article on Eckford
• Alternate photograph from a different angle, also taken by Will Counts
• Margolick, David. "Through a Lens, Darkly", Vanity Fair
  Vanity Fair (magazine)
  Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
  
  , 24 September 2007