A hard lesson to learn

The 1950s have been characterized in our collective memories as a period of economic prosperity and social harmony, but for many black citizens, it was a time of prejudice and struggle to realize the fundamental rights extended to white Americans, including an education.

The Supreme Court handed down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, requiring schools in the South to end its segregation policies. Though the Little Rock, Arkansas School District agreed upon a plan of desegregation, its first implementation would not take place until 1957, when the all-white Central High School would admit nine African American students to the new school year. Under great political pressure from segregationist groups, Governor Orval Faubus chose to defy the plan, calling out the Arkansas National Guard to block admission of the nine students. Angry, threatening crowds filled the streets around the school, also preventing the new students from being admitted to Central High.

Turmoil continued as President Eisenhower sent troops from the 101st Airborne division and federalized the National Guard to protect and permit the students to enter the school. The Arkansas governor responded by signing a decree to close all public schools, and a plan to lease the buildings to private organizations that would be free to circumvent the Supreme Court ruling and admit or deny entry to students based on race. Over the next months, the battle for the Little Rock Nine would continue in the courts and state legislature until the Federal mandate of desegregation was finally implemented.

What must also be recognized in this context is the cruelty that took place in school as the black students were subjected to daily verbal and physical harassment. One of the nine, Melba Pattillo, had acid thrown into her eyes, and in another instance was trapped in a washroom stall as white girls dropped pieces of flaming paper on her from above. These young people would endure great personal hardship to achieve their goal—the same education offered white students.

Seventy years hence, Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High have become subject to a different kind of terror, the turning of their school into a place of unbridled savagery that would claim so many innocent lives, leaving all with a dread of where and when it could happen next. Parallels can be drawn with the experience of the Little Rock Nine, but for one striking difference. There are no Federal efforts to protect these young people, not as long as the NRA, a deceitful organization that resists any reasonable steps to curtail gun access, holds financial sway over the current administration and legislature.

With courage beyond their years, the students of Douglas High, like the nine at Little Rock Central High School, refuse to accept the status quo, and declare on behalf of all students, “Never again.”

Richard Kushnier