Elizabeth Eckford

Elizabeth Eckford

(Elizabeth Eckford attempts to enter Little Rock Central High on September 4, 1957; Hazel Bryan shouts behind her in September 1957.)

Elizabeth Eckford was born on October 4, 1941 in Little Rock, Arkansas.

She lived in the Jim Crow South.

Jim Crow Laws were Anti-White (mostly against Blacks) Official Laws that were made after the southern US States (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia) were readmitted into the United States of America after they lost the Civil War.

Jim Crow started in 1877 (following the Compromise of 1877) in which Federal US Troops were removed from the southern States.

Jim Crow Laws determined where Non-White People could live, where they could eat, where they could shop, what they could do for a living, where they could sit, how they were given an education, etc.

Education was a major part of Jim Crow.

White Southerners did not want their Children to be taught by a Non-White Teacher or learn with Non-White Students (because then the truth about things like the American Civil War would come out and make the White Southerners feel bad)

In 1954 the US Supreme Court decided in the case of Brown v. Board of Education that Racial Discrimination in Education (under Jim Crow) violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution.

On September 4, 1957 Elizabeth Eckford was one of 9 Black Students (later known as the Little Rock Nine) that the first to attend the previously All-White Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Group of 9 were supposed to arrive together, with their Parents, and enter through a back door of the School.

Elizabeth didn’t receive those instructions as her Family had no telephone and so she went to the High School by herself.

An angry White Mob of 400 People yelled Swear Words as Elizabeth tried to enter the High School.

In that angry Whitey Mob was 15 year old Hazel Bryan who shouted "Go home, nigger! Go back to Africa!" to Elizabeth.

Will Counts of the “Arkansas Democrat” took several pictures that showed Elizabeth being followed by an angry White Group; this and other photos of the day's startling events were circulated around the US and the world by the Press.

When Elizabeth made it to the front door of the High School the Arkansas National Guard, under orders from Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, refused her entry by blocking her way with their bayonets.

When Elizabeth fled the School the White Mob chased her to a Bus Stop and threatened to lynch her.

Elizabeth was crying when a Reporter, Benjamin Fine, 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 who escorted her onto a city bus and went home.

For the next two weeks, the Little Rock Nine stayed home to study instead of going to the Little Rock Central High School.

 President Dwight D. Eisenhower was reluctant to do anything about the Mob or the rioting.

Eventually, Eisenhower invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807, and the following day, took control of the 10,000 Member Arkansas National Guard from the Governor and sent 1,200 Members of the 101st Airborne Division to accompany the Students to School for protection.

On September 23, 1957, the Little Rock Nine approached Central High again, and Elizabeth Eckford along with the other eight Students, accompanied by City Policemen, were let into the High School through a side door while a Mob of 1,000 Whites surrounded the School again as the Students attempted to enter.

Both Federal Troops and Federalized National Guardsmen were deployed at the school for the entirety of the school year, although they were unable to prevent incidents of violence against the group inside the facility

Elizabeth and the other Students were spat upon, punched, hit with eggs and vegetables and faced with a barrage of slurs and insults all year long.

Elizabeth managed to finish the School Year,

All of Little Rock’s High Schools were closed the following year, so Elizabeth did not graduate from Central High School (known as the “Lost Year.”)

Instead, she took Correspondence and Night courses and earned enough credits for her High School Diploma.

In 1959 Elizabeth moved to St. Louis, Missouri.

Elizabeth attended Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, where she earned a BA in History in 1962.

In 1963, having changed her mind on Integration and feeling guilt for her treatment of Elizabeth Hazel Massery contacted Elizabeth and apologized.

In 1967 Elizabeth then served in the United States Army for five years, first as a Pay Clerk, and then as an Information Specialist.

She also wrote for the Fort McClellan (Alabama) and the Fort Benjamin Harrison (Indiana) Newspapers.

After that, she has worked as a Waitress, History Teacher, Welfare Worker, Unemployment and Employment Interviewer and a Military Reporter.

She was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

In 1997, Elizabeth shared the Father Joseph Biltz Award—presented by the National Conference for Community and Justice—with Hazel Bryan Massery (the White Student in the Photograph who was shouting Swear Words to Elizabeth in 1957.)

In 1997 Elizabth and Hazel went on a “Reconciliation Rally” for the 40^th Anniversary of the Integration of Little Rock Central School and the Infamous Photograph.

The two then went their separate ways.

In 1999, President Bill Clinton awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to Elizabeth and the other Members of the Little Rock Nine.

In 2018 she wrote her Autobiography “The Worst First Day: Bullied While Desegregating Little Rock Central High.”

Elizabeth Eckford is still alive and is 84 years old.