Elizabeth Eckford (1941- ) is the most famous of the Little Rock Nine, the first nine black students to go to Little Rock Central High School in the American state of Arkansas. She is not a household name but the picture taken by Will Counts of her going to school that first day, on September 4th 1957, with whites shouting at her, is world famous.
Before she left the house that morning her family read the 27th Psalm together:
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear:
Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
She took the city bus and walked up to the school. The governor had called in soldiers, who ringed the school. They let the white students pass, but when she approached they crossed their guns. Three times she tried to pass. By then 250 whites had gathered, shouting at her:
Lynch her! Lynch her!
No nigger bitch is going to get in our school! Get out of here!
Go back to where you came from!
Send that nigger back to the jungle!
Drag her over to this tree!
She walked to the bus stop to go home. She wanted to run but was afraid she would fall. An angry girl behind her was shouting:
Go home, nigger! Go back to Africa!
Just then Counts took his picture.
The governor was breaking the law but the president would not stand up to him. At last after three weeks the president sent in the 101st Airborne Division. Eckford and the others could now go to school – nine blacks in a sea of 2,000 whites.
Her history teacher refused to touch her. She taught that slavery had civilized blacks. One boy sat behind her and kept saying “nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger” every day. Whites threw things at her: spitballs, paper clips, eggs, tomatoes, snowballs with rocks inside, broken glass. They pushed her, they knocked her down, they put broken glass in the shower. Even the few whites who were friendly did not want to be seen with her.
No more than 10% of whites caused trouble, but the rest would not stand up to them, not even the teachers and principals.
Eckford is extremely brave and forgiving but depression runs in her family. She has never got over the experience and has tried to kill herself several times. She lives in the same house – she says to leave the state would be cowardly.
Central High today is more than half black, but blacks and whites sit in different classrooms and sit at opposite ends of the cafeteria. It is two schools under one roof, separate and unequal.
See also:
- Vanity Fair: Through a Lens Darkly – by David Margolick. This post is based on his account, which is 24 times longer and goes into way more.
- Jim Crow
- The Death Of Emmett Till – just two years before!
- Ota Benga
- whites-only proms
- going to a white school:
This picture speaks volumes and makes me emotional. It is hard to imagine the courage and strength it took to endure this type of treatment day in and day out.
We owe all of the privledges that we have now to those like her and others who came before us.
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Elizabeth Eckford is a brave woman, and she was a very brave girl. She was only 15-16 when that happened, right? That sort of trauma leaves permanent scars. She is a hero, but I am sad to hear about her depression and suicide attempts. No human being should be forced to go through that kind of trauma.
PS-I can’t believe the “quite segregation” is still going on. That black kids sit with other black kids, and whites with other whites. And nobody sees any problems with that?
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@islandgirl:
Indeed. Miss. Eckford had such determination and dignity in the face of such ugliness. The angry, hate-filled face of the white girl is sickening.
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I always wondered who the woman in that photograph is. I can’t even begin to imagine how hard her life has been and is. I know it’s unlikely, but I wish her peace.
Abagond, have you ever seen that picture of a white guy holding an american flag who looks like he is about to stab a black man with it? I’d like to know who that person is too.
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On another note, I can’t believe it’s a picture of high school students. Elizabeth looks young, but the women around her look mostly 30s.
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kpp:
I know that picture. I will find out.
In the picture Elizabeth is a month short of 16. The girl just behind her and the one to her left are both high school students. The one to the left hates this picture because she says it destroyed her chances of ever becoming Miss Little Rock.
White people in Arkansas in general do not like this picture because it makes them look like racist rednecks.
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What’s the surprise ? If a dog barks, there is no surprise. This is just white people being white. Doing what they do naturally. I’ve been reading this blogs for months now and you all come on here and get into silly point 4 point ideological battles with a race of people who literally are DEVILS and I mean ALL.
It would have been great for this woman to come strapped and blown them away. Bunch of sisssies, come down to the black neighbourhood with that S H I T and we will show you how strong nubian black man would respond to that nonsense.
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Mira:
“PS-I can’t believe the “quite segregation” is still going on. That black kids sit with other black kids, and whites with other whites. And nobody sees any problems with that?”
White Americans, you may have noticed, have amazing powers of moral blindness. It is not just Little Rock either.
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It’s those cold, ugly people who became teachers, politicians, soldiers…parents. And today so many people want to pretend that all is o.k and whitewashing and racial prejudice are just “boogeymen” that non-white people dream up. For all those who do not believe they live in a racist country and that the buck stops at “But my family never owned slaves”, look at those images closely, yes even you honorary whites.
Also..
I was wondering the same thing about these girls’ appearance, they all look like someone’s mom. And I’m wondering why only the black students are wearing plaid.
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I noticed that too. Not sure what the plaid thing is about.
Another thing to notice about the pictures is that it is mainly white GIRLS who are shouting at her. That was true throughout her time at Central: it was mainly white girls who gave her a hard time.
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That is so sad and hateful. I’m sorry she never got over the trauma she experienced. I try to take my education seriously and it does make me sad to see others take it for granted because look at the hell people went through in order to pave the way for the rest of us.
On a side note, I kinda wonder whatever happened to the people in the picture. Did they learn from the error of their hateful ways and make a change? Or did they go on to raise racist and hateful offspring like themselves? Are they still living or dead? You can’t get to Heaven with hate in your heart.
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This picture reminds me of an article her in Newport News, VA in the Daily Press in 1971 where the residents of the Historic Hilton Village area didn’t want blacks to attend these schools. There were pictures of white kids, as young as 10 years old, shouting and holding signs. Now, you have to remember this was 1971, a whole 14 years after Little Rock. I always wondered who those people were in those photos. They can’t be much older than myself and I wonder, what are their ideologies now? Racism is certainly not dead. It’s just hiding from its past and surreptitiously planting is seedlings in our infrastructure.
P.S. If I can find that picture and article I’ll send it to you.
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There were probably only one or two other students in the first picture. The one on the right behind Eckford was probably a teacher. Most of the people outside were parents and people from the city. The second picture is of students. The makeup and hairstyle of the day made them look older. Remember this was a time and place where women got married right after high school at 17 and 18.
There was another young Black woman who got expelled because she couldn’t take the abuse and fought back, by throwing her lunch tray into the person who had pushed her.
Those pictures are just one of many. Much of this was televised. Ms. Eckford was also one of many who quietly had to endure the trauma of being the first.
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It must take a massive amount of mental strength to get through that.
From my Cameroonian grandmother’s stories I always thought France was tough in the 50s but this… (tears in my eyes now…) this feels like a different planet altogether.
I don’t remember who said this but it was said in a context about how fascism can rise easily –
“The world is a cruel place. Not only because of those who do evil, but especially because of those who look on and do nothing.”
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“PS-I can’t believe the “quite segregation” is still going on. That black kids sit with other black kids, and whites with other whites. And nobody sees any problems with that?”
Yes, there’s still a color line, though it’s quite a bit weaker than it used to be. Also, it’s not clear who’s responsible. I’ve heard some argue that blacks are now the main enforcers of the color line.
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Hey Abagond,
Do you know any info about what the young men endured? I suspect that most of their abuse came from guys. That’s pretty much how it is in high school, same sex torture. Now the teachers’ sexes likely varied.
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“Yes, there’s still a color line, though it’s quite a bit weaker than it used to be. Also, it’s not clear who’s responsible. I’ve heard some argue that blacks are now the main enforcers of the color line.”
Translation: It’s black peoples’ fault that racism still exists!
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“Translation: It’s black peoples’ fault that racism still exists!”
Actually, no. The lack of a color line doesn’t mean that racism is non-existent. Brazil doesn’t have one, but has plenty of racism/colorism.
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The argument that blacks (i.e. African Americans) are the main enforcers of the color line is based on evidence actually. First, the overall black-white intermarriage rate is very low compared to Hispanics and Asians; this represents the modern day color line. However, data indicates that black West Indian immigrants marry whites at around the same rate that Asians and Hispanics do (~30%). So it would seem there’s something distinctive about African Americans other than their physical blackness which is leading to their social segregation from whites.
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I would say no crying needed. What was and is needed for the young people to carry on. The civil rights movement of the 50’s were mainly composed of young people under 21, in the marches, protest and the sit ins.
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Amazing story…and to think people foolishly believe all that resentment prejudiced whites had towards blacks just vanished with integration. Hatred that high strung lasts for generations.
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FG,
What has intermarriage got to do with the color line?
In the US, even if it is thought that being light gave you an advantage, the one drop rule kept everyone in a segregated system. There weren’t all of those distinctions made, by white people as in other countries. I never heard anyone called a mulatto or octoroon, with exception in literature. And it didn’t significantly alter your life, so after 287 years of being partitioned and now it is expected that in 40 years there is going to be much commingling?
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Stuff like this makes me glad that 3000 whites died up in twin towers in 9/11, should dig em up and kill em again, because they didn’t die hard enough the 1st time.
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“What has intermarriage got to do with the color line?”
Um … the lack of official marriage (not reproduction) between whites and blacks is considered the hallmark of the color line.
“In the US, even if it is thought that being light gave you an advantage, the one drop rule kept everyone in a segregated system. There weren’t all of those distinctions made, by white people as in other countries. I never heard anyone called a mulatto or octoroon, with exception in literature. ”
The one drop rule and non-recognition of mixedness is an aspect of the color line. You’re discussion of the ODR is correct for maybe 1890s-1960s period, but before that things were quite different and conditions began to change again in the 1970s.
“so after 287 years of being partitioned and now it is expected that in 40 years there is going to be much commingling?”
The color line has actually changed rapidly over time. It was actually strongest in the Jim Crow period. Believe it or not, there was more intermarriage in 1850s America than 1950s America.
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The world saw the hypocrisy of the “Land of the free and the home of the brave”.
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The shouting woman is Hazel Massery:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_Massery
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@ Nina
thanks for the info, I agree that the woman just wants to be seen as a “nice white lady” even though she is not and wants Elizabeth to “get over it” *eyeroll* so that she can feel better
If anyone doesn’t know who Ruby Nell Bridges is she was a littl girl who was one of the first black children to intergrate in a all white school and had the same evil things done to her she was 6 years old at the time, there is a film out there about it staring Lela Rochon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Bridges
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FG,
I still don’t know what individuals who have intermarried have anything to do with Blacks and whites co-mingling in social situations.
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“I still don’t know what individuals who have intermarried have anything to do with Blacks and whites co-mingling in social situations.”
Well, marriage is of course an example of “co-mingling in social situations.” It’s an indicator of social interaction.
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Actually, no. The lack of a color line doesn’t mean that racism is non-existent. Brazil doesn’t have one, but has plenty of racism/colorism.
We have a very wide and poorly-defined color ZONE.
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FG,
Care to expand on your original color line point? Are you saying that blacks maintain the color line because they marry outside of their race less often than other races?
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“Care to expand on your original color line point? Are you saying that blacks maintain the color line because they marry outside of their race less often than other races?”
Note that I’m using color line to denote lack of social interaction across racial lines, of which marriage is one aspect. That blacks (African Americans) marry non-blacks at a pretty low rate is a statistical finding. There’s no debate about that. There’s uncertainty over why this is though. Conventional wisdom would say it’s white racism at work; whites don’t view blacks as acceptable company. However, some have made the argument that the chief cause is black hostility to interracial interaction. I’m not sure what the answer is. But keep this in mind … Who did Thad and Color of Love say gave them trouble for being married to black women?
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African_Black_Militant,
I don’t know where you got your reference from but there were not 3000 white people who died in the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Many of the people in the World Trade Center were service people, who were not white and quite of few people of color who were in the financial industry and the military.
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FG:
So the reason education is separate and unequal in America is mainly because blacks want to keep themselves separate, not because of any white racism? So in the case of Central High today it is because black people like it that way and not, say, because Arikansas merely obeyed the letter of the law instead of making a serious effort to make education equal?
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“So the reason education is separate and unequal in America is mainly because blacks want to keep themselves separate, not because of any white racism?”
It’s all very complicated. A major reason for educational inequality is that blacks and whites live in different places and attend different types of schools. Why do they live in different places? Conventional explanations: blacks often can’t afford to live in rich white neighborhoods and blacks are discriminated against in housing markets. I’m sure this has much truth behind it. However, researchers are also investigating the possibility that blacks prefer to live in black neighborhoods. What about blacks and whites who attend the same school? Why are they in separate in classrooms? You get into the same complexities.
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I started high school in the early eighties and I learned about the details of the civil rights struggle from our history teacher showing the PBS series Eyes on the Prize. I remember feeling a seething sense of anger that took a while to go away. However, when I am confronted with that era and the attitudes of that era (Tea Party, this latest thing with Dr. Laura), it all comes back to me. The laws may have changed but the attitudes of that 10% of serious racists have not. All of you may have heard about Dr. Laura’s N* word rant. I heard it and wanted to fly to NYC or wherever she is and choke the breath out of that woman. For her to say any black person is being too sensitive in the face of racist ignorance given the history, and not ancient history mind you is infuriating. She may as well have spat in my face and the brave faces of the Little Rock Nine. Thanks for reminding me of how far we have come in the US and how much further we need to go.
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@Abagond
White Americans, you may have noticed, have amazing powers of moral blindness. It is not just Little Rock either.
I must admit I did notice this. Not all white people, but many. Especially females (this might be highly subjective, though). They’ll smile and be super nice (even too nice), but then in a second. they’ll start with some racist stuff, mainly by making US history completely heroic and fair or by othering non-whites in a way “I’m nice to everybody, but they are different”.
Now, about Elizabeth Eckford and her tormentors. Of course it were mainly females who did it. It’s not that white females are worse than males, but obviously they were the ones who felt threatened. And yes, they all look really old n those photos, but maybe that’s because of the anger on their faces and hate in their hearts.
@ FG
So, are you saying that blacks tend to segregate themselves? But from what I understand, many (most?) of the schools have whites as a majority. Isn’t it logical fro whites to approach black, if they honestly want to make friends? And sure, there are some blacks who don’t want to associate themselves with whites. Still, I am not quite sure if whites are really, really trying that hard to make friends with blacks (or Latinos for that matter. Not sure about the Asians).
All evidence I have is my friends’ experiences in America (most of them spent a year as exchange students in high school). A good friend was in Texas. They made many new friends, but those were mainly other foreign students or blacks/Latinos. None of them said blacks refused to be friends with them. There might be individual cases, but not blacks/Latinos as a group.
But another thing was evident: the moment they started hanging out with their black friends, white friends mysteriously disappeared, but not their (white) foreign friends. Also, most of my female friends say black and Lationo guys were interested in them more than white guys (only one of them dated a white Jewish guy). Not sure how relevant this is, but none of my friends complained about blacks not wanting to be their friends.
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@FG (and others)
What about blacks and whites who attend the same school? Why are they in separate in classrooms?
What do you mean, “separate classrooms”? How does that go? You have a separate biology class for blacks? Or are there certain subjects that blacks are more interested in?
How do you choose a class anyway? You pick a subject or a group of people/teacher?
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FG:
The research that I have seen shows that blacks prefer to live in neighbourhoods that are about 25% black while most whites refuse to live in neighbourhoods that are more than about 10% black. As it turns out nearly 90% of suburban whites live in a place that is less than 1% black.
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FG,
“However, some have made the argument that the chief cause is black hostility to interracial interaction. I’m not sure what the answer is. But keep this in mind … Who did Thad and Color of Love say gave them trouble for being married to black women?”
Whites oppose interracial relationships too. There are plenty of surveys showing that whites are less open to black/white interracial unions than blacks are.
White women just oppose it in a different manner than, say, black men.
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I want to know how whites and blacks end up in separate classrooms as well. It certainly wasn’t like that at my high school.
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The research that I have seen shows that blacks prefer to live in neighbourhoods that are about 25% black while most whites refuse to live in neighbourhoods that are more than about 10% black.
That sounds logical. I guess blacks know there are many whites in America and many of them don’t want to segregate of the point of never interacting with whites, never seeing any of them, never working with any of them (or being friends with them… Not sure about dating and marrying them, though).* But it’s clear that (some) whites don’t have any problems with not interacting with blacks at all even though blacks are American citizens as much as they are.
*Maybe there are blacks who don’t want anything, anything to do with whites, not even interacting on a basic level. Still, it’s more difficult for them to get away from whites than it is for whites to get away from blacks and other minorities.
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White women just oppose it in a different manner than, say, black men.
I agree. I can hardly picture a white woman threatening to beat up a black woman for dating one of “her” men. Or beating up “her” man for betraying the race.
I’m not saying all back men who oppose interracial relationships react this way, but honestly, that kind of behavior is more typical for men than for women. And don’t white men oppose in violent ways as well? (I mean, not that long time ago, they lynched people for that).
So I do think it’s more about male/female ways of opposing IR than the violence of black men per se.
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I’ve never had anyone become violent or threaten to become violent.
My SO says white women oppose black women/white men interracial unions more than black men, they are just less vocal about it. And that’s saying a lot coming from him. Personally, I’m not too sure either way.
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Not sure how the segregation at Central High works today. That would be postworthy in itself. A quick Google search does not tell you how the high school works today.
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“What do you mean, “separate classrooms”? How does that go? You have a separate biology class for blacks? Or are there certain subjects that blacks are more interested in?
How do you choose a class anyway? You pick a subject or a group of people/teacher?”
It varies from place to place, but at many schools there are multiple classes for the same subject taught at varying levels of difficulty. In a large proportion of high schools, the hardest version of a course is known as the Advanced Placement (AP). If you take one of these and pass a qualifying exam at the end of the semester, you can use it as credit towards the corresponding course at the college which you eventually attend. Whites and Asians would seem to be over-represented in AP classes.
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I thought this article regarding the most recent Pew study and interracial marriage might be of some interest, as it regards blacks maintaining the color line.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/08/stir-it-up-race-and-newlywed-marriages/61139/
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FG,
Thanks for explanation. But that system doesn’t sound like a voluntary segregation to me.
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“Thanks for explanation. But that system doesn’t sound like a voluntary segregation to me.”
Students get to choose which course they take though.
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Students get to choose which course they take though.
True, but it still doesn’t sound like a voluntary segregation in a way I pictured it: two classes of the same type, one for whites, other for blacks.
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Natasha,
I asked my boyfriend the same question, and he invokes the confirmation bias defense. 😛 But we both agreed that (perhaps oddly), if a Black man does react (by “react” I mean, glare or something; no one’s ever spoken to us or done anything physical), he’s always older, which makes me assume that his reasoning isn’t that he wants to date me himself (“you’re taking our women” and all that). But with White women, they are both older (and I tend to lump old people, of all races, into the “generally disapproving of ‘race mixing'” category) and younger (maybe around 18 to mid-20s). The Black men in our age group don’t seem to care.
Now, how to connect this to E. Eckford? 🙂 In terms of school segregation, people notice a group of Black kids more easily than they notice a group of White kids (in a majority-White school) because White kids are raceless. So all-White spaces don’t demonstrate racial solidarity the way all-Black ones do. Most White people don’t contemplate the irony, IMO.
Coincidentally, I just wrote a post on this topic–racial segregation in school–for the new magazine my (2% Black) university is launching.
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@FG
“Students get to choose which course they take though.”
In my school, AP classes were officially a “choice” but you had to have fulfilled pre-requisites to take them and get approval from the teacher if you didn’t have those pre-reqs. You could see many social divides in my school once you entered the AP classes. In AP classes, there were mostly upper-middle class affluent students and this was predominantly a white population. When you observe these classes, you have to take into account systemic oppression in race and class structure.
I remember reading about a study (though I can’t find remember the source) where students were given a standardized test. In the control group they were told that their score did not matter and just to have fun with it. White students and non-white students scored similarly on this test. The same test was given to another group and were told that it was a very important test that they needed to do well in. In this group, suddenly you see non-white student scores drop. The findings suggested to the researchers that our school system is failing at instilling confidence for academic acheivement in non-white students. This is another form of systemic oppression that is then internalized by the students.
At my highschool, rich kids and white kids were in the AP classes (of course there were some exceptions but almost never for both poor and non-white kids). If it were truly a choice, why would lower class kids and non-white kids choose not to be in the most challenging courses? If you’re told from day one that you won’t go to college, or that you’re dumb, or you’re acheivement is consistantly ignored by white teachers…I can see that one’s academic confidence could be permanently scarred. This is another form of subtle yet powerful racism.
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Mira, yes, it’s not like blacks think “Well, I want to hang out with the black kids only, so I’ll take regular English instead of AP.”
And there were black students in my AP classes. Slightly less than their overall population in the school, but those classes also tended to be smaller in general.
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Jasmin, I’ve gotten comments from black men my age. It’s probably a regional difference when it comes to who you encounter.
Nina, there were students from all classes in AP classes at my high school. The main differences I noticed was in APUSH (AP U.S. History) — more whites, and AP Calc AB and BC — more Asians. But the student body was already self-selected since there is a statewide exam similar to the PSAT that one has to take and make a certain score in order to enter the school.
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My dad once told me, the reason why white people get along better with Africans than African Americans is because ” it wasn’t in there plan to let us free” it kinda makes sense seeing how I always have some white (cilivan. Trying to put me in my place.
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Students don’t always get to choose–you had to get recommended for some of the APs at my high school, and they usually didn’t allow “jumping”–you couldn’t take “A” English junior year and then try to get into AP as a senior.
Per a Google search, my high school was 77% White, 16% Black, 6% Hispanic, and 1% Asian (Only 2 Native American students, so >1%). Based on those numbers I would guess Blacks were overrepresented in the AP classes, but I also went to a private school you had to test into, so the group is obviously self-selected.
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@Natasha
Interesting. I went to a public school in an affluent mostly white suburb of DC. In the time I was there, there were two black students in my AP classes and they were regularly accused of “acting white” by the white students. Of course, behind their backs. These black students were also from affluent families. I would feel comfortable asserting that any non-white students in these AP classes were from upper middle-class families.
@Jasmin
sounds like the same series of hoops at my school. Freshman year, you had to get into an advance track class that would lead to AP and that was based on your middle school teacher recommendation. so, if you were not focused in middle school you were pretty much barred from making a comeback in HS.
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Amazing post, abagond. Thanks.
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As Nina pointed out, the white girl right behind Eckford in the picture shouting is Hazel Massery (then Hazel Bryan). Years later she apologized, but even whites thought it was not heartfelt, that she did it for the sake of her image. Eckford forgave her. Her father and grandfather said it was the right thing to do. Most blacks thought she was a fool for doing so. In any case they were friends for a while, from 1997 to 1999, speaking at schools and so on. But later they had a falling out.
Towards the end they appeared together on a radio show in Indiana. Here is how David Margolick tells it:
“When Hazel told a radio host there named Shana Ritter that her parents pulled her out of Central for her own safety, Elizabeth jumped on her. “Every time you say that I’m puzzled,” she interjected. “Who did they expect to harm you?” Asked for some closing thoughts, Hazel offered something gaseous about “dialogue.” “There’s a southern saying about some people peeing and calling it rain,” Elizabeth countered—on the air.”
It sounds like Massery was not being honest enough about race to maintain a serious relationship with Eckford.
Margolick goes into all the ins and outs of their relationship. At times it seemed like Massery wanted it to become the Little Rock Ten.
More here:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/09/littlerock200709?printable=true¤tPage=allAre%20white%20women%20bea
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FG,
After years of redlining I guess it would appear that Blacks would want to all live together and statistics can back up that assumption. I know that whites have no problem living with Black folk while the neighborhood is in the process of gentrification. I also know that Blacks that have moved into certain white neighborhoods as recently in this decade, have been harassed. Some so badly that they moved. Since Blacks do have means of technology and transportation they do not need to live next door in order to keep in touch with their culture and kin; it is mostly the cost or veiled threats that keep them out of certain neighborhoods. It also that where they might could afford to live next to some whites, they are also discriminating in their values.
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Most white people today DO find the behavior of the whites in Little Rock appalling and redneck-like, on par with the Westboro Baptist douchebags.
Elizabeth Eckford, on the other hand, looks brave and dignified. I’m so sorry to hear things haven’t gone well for her later in life.
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That school is still separated today?
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[…] mild anxiety while shopping because of those encounters but far too many others have suffered worse. And because this type of thinking still exists, I have to somehow prepare my son to be wary of […]
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good post, i read melba patillo beals novel ‘warriors don’t cry’ she described witnessing that incident w/ elizabeth eckford in her book, melba and her mother were chased away from the school w/ a noose and melba had to drive away w/ her mom (even though at that time she didn’t have a license yet) they didn’t have time to switch driver/passenger side, so she drove home. i really liked her book, i learned NOTHING NOTHING about little rock integration in school, I learned everything from reading her book. its amazing how much stuff is let out of schools when it comes to black history, its pretty upsetting when u think about it.
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“Interesting. I went to a public school in an affluent mostly white suburb of DC. In the time I was there, there were two black students in my AP classes and they were regularly accused of “acting white” by the white students. Of course, behind their backs. These black students were also from affluent families. I would feel comfortable asserting that any non-white students in these AP classes were from upper middle-class families.”
yeah i was called acting white by white students too…i don’t know where people get the idea that its just black students calling other black students ‘acting white’ i got that more from white students than anyone else…
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Originally Posted By Hator
I don’t know where you got your reference from but there were not 3000 white people who died in the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Many of the people in the World Trade Center were service people, who were not white and quite of few people of color who were in the financial industry and the military.
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Oh yeah I know some black people were probably in twin towers, not many though but the majority were white, hence I am glad they all got killed. 9/11 was a great day.
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African Black Militant:
You are a cold, fucking bastard – and probably not even black but some white racist troll out to derail the thread, given your name and how off-topic your comment is.
I know of two people killed in the Twin Towers and neither one was white: one was black, the other South Asian.
And if you think all those white people should have been killed you are no better than the hijackers themselves, the same sort of moral scum they were.
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Originally Posted By Abagond
You are a cold, fucking bastard – and probably not even black but some white racist troll out to derail the thread, given your name and how off-topic your comment is.
I know of two people killed in the Twin Towers and neither one was white: one was black, the other South Asian.
And if you think all those white people should have been killed you are no better than the hijackers themselves, the same sort of moral scum they were.
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I am black but I’m one of them black people who you very rarely meet and when you do, your shocked. I love your site, but after months of reading it. I just thought I’d put my bit in.
You want the story about 9/11 listen to my teacher
I fully maintain that the mainly white people deserved to die in 9/11 twin towers. America murders every day. They deserved it and now they are murdering thousands RIGHT NOW in the Afhganistan. The true Nubian warrior sees white people as ALL being evil and stained with blood. Damn, you don’t know how deep the White man’s game is.
The white man used his weapons of war, his evil to conquer the world. Now pay attention now because this is gonna blow your mind.
Do you realise that the Internet we are on now was made by the US military and their group called DARPA—Defense, Advanced, Research, Projects, Administration so that the military could communicate following a nuclear war ? The white man knows no limits of morality.
Now they let “the people” use it for “communication.” Nope, they are monitoring us at all times. These internets are TRICKNOLOGY. I monitor the white man’s Internets in an effort to sabotage the white man’s efforts to use tricknology to manipulate the mental mindstates of the captive Black African, especially the bastion of evil Youtube where you can see all manner of black foolishness– but you too are a warrior in the struggle against white supremacy.
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“You are a cold, fucking bastard – and probably not even black but some white racist troll out to derail the thread, given your name and how off-topic your comment is.
I know of two people killed in the Twin Towers and neither one was white: one was black, the other South Asian.
And if you think all those white people should have been killed you are no better than the hijackers themselves, the same sort of moral scum they were.”
OMG that’s horrible, i’m so sorry to hear that. I agree african black militant is a moron and a troll…that is my last comment about him.
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Former Central High graduate here (class of 1985). I went to Central during my 11th and 12 grade school years. I am an AA albino, therefore very light skinned, “bright” (I.Q.) around 120) and when I was in high school Central High was 85% black. And yet the ENTIRE time I was there I was NEVER in a class that had more than 3 blacks students and that included me. None of my classes had less than 25 students in them, either. Some had more than 30 kids. Further, you guys should know that the NYC school district was sued in the 1990’s (google it) for tracking white and asian chilldren into “talented/gifted classes and black and hispanic children into regular and remedial classes even when the black and hispanic kids grades and test scores indicated they should be in gifted classes. That’s how at least nearly separate black/white classes happen.
Ernest Green one of boys in plaid in the picture nearly got kicked out of school, too. A white girl was instructed to flirt with him and I’m guessing if he’d fallen for it she’d have said he make unwelcome advances toward her (there’s a whole history of that crap in America, but that’s another topic). However he didn’t fall for it and later became the assistant secretary of labor under President Carter. White racists wanted him expelled because he was a senior that year and was the first African American student to graduate from Central High.
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Bye the way, Abagond, my best friend the “southern white woman, and I the “sourthern black woman” discovered your blog by accident while I was skyping her from Norway one weekend. We were surfing the net at the same time. We haven’t been able to stay away from it since. Kudos to you, man!
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I have seen this photograph quite a few times, read about the Little Rock Nine and watched a number of TV documentries about this over the years and I STILL cried when I read this. The inner strength of Elizabeth Eckford and the other black students is just unbelievable. I simply cannot imagine enduring this level of hate and abuse. I can only hope that the the abusers have either seen the error of their ways or have never found inner peace.
Shame on white America.
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Just so everyone knows, the commenter calling himself African_Black_Militant is engaging in plagiarism.
He is plagiarizing from another blog called, “We are Respectable Negroes.” The writers on that blog have created a satirical character called “Brother X Squared” who is supposedly a black nationalist. I have read AfricanBlackMilitant’s “posts” and some of his statements are word for word from that blog.
Plagiarism indicates a weak intellect, lack of creativity, lack of original thought, and just plain laziness.
Just thought you all would like to know.
P.s. Abagond, you would probably enjoy the “Respectable Negroes blog.”
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Uh oh. Someone’s busted! 😉
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SouthernWhiteWoman
Just so everyone knows, the commenter calling himself African_Black_Militant is engaging in plagiarism.
He is plagiarizing from another blog called, “We are Respectable Negroes.” The writers on that blog have created a satirical character called “Brother X Squared” who is supposedly a black nationalist. I have read AfricanBlackMilitant’s “posts” and some of his statements are word for word from that blog.
Plagiarism indicates a weak intellect, lack of creativity, lack of original thought, and just plain laziness.
Just thought you all would like to know.
P.s. Abagond, you would probably enjoy the “Respectable Negroes blog.”
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Black peoples hatred and especially my hatred for whites is VALID since we have not pre-judged them. It’s not like one clan of people demonizing another clan and teaching their children to fear and hate another distant far-off group without ever meeting them.
Everyone grows up around white people and so we get plenty of opportunity to get to know you. My opinions are based on life experiences. If whites really weren’t so bad, then hatred of whites, even if unjust, would be rare. It’s that simple. There is an epidemic of hatred towards whites and invalidating our experiences just isn’t going to work.
Sorry, that’s just the facts.
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@African_Black_Militant,
You can spout hatred all you want, but you still plagiarized someone else’s (another black person’s words).
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[…] es ihnen dort ergangen ist, erzählt beispielsweise Abagond in seinem Blogbeitrag zu Elizabeth Eckford, die zu den „Little Rock Nine“ […]
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White people being white people is what i see in this picture.99% of whites are wicked and racist.
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Elizabeth was an amazing woman. For my homework project I wrote about no matter what she still went to school to ge an education. Even if she got kicked and punched. Someday I would like to meet her.
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This is horrible
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Abagond – Militant may be a cold fucking bastard, but any black person who says they feel sorry for white folks in obvious sundown towns affected by tornadoes, wildfires and such is lying. Half the time they live in those all-white towns to get away from black folks and keep us out.
And any black person who says they don’t think white America reaped what it sowed on 9/11 with some minorities as collateral damage is lying too. I feel the same damned way as militant.
White people have to do more for all humanity before I can give a damn about their humanity. They have to regain their own souls. Assange, Manning and Snowden are a good start.
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This is still a highly upsetting post.
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Thank you for making this post it really helped me on my essay!! 😀
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