A member of the Little Rock Nine looks back (The Upshot)

Several of the Little Rock Nine leave Central High School under troop escort, 1957. (Central High Museum Historical??

On September 4, 1957, nine African-American students arrived at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas, to attend their first day of class. They were met with angry segregationist mobs and the National Guard--not to protect them, but to keep them from entering the all-white school. The students had been enrolled by the NAACP and were aware of the group's desire to enforce the landmark Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, which made it illegal to keep schools segregated. Arkansas was one of two southern states that announced it would comply with the decision. The standoff, beamed to the world through television coverage, transfixed the nation, until President Dwight Eisenhower ended the confrontation three weeks later by sending in the 101st Airborne Division to escort the students to class.

Today, Little Rock Central High School is a national monument. The Little Rock Nine were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bill Clinton, and the pioneering students attended the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Yahoo! News spoke with Ernest Green, one of the Little Rock Nine, who became the first African-American student to graduate from Little Rock Central -- an occasion that was marked by the presence of?Martin Luther King, Jr. Green went on to graduate from Michigan State University and later became an Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs under President Jimmy Carter. He currently serves on the board of the African American Experience Fund at the National Park Foundation.

You were enrolled by the NAACP in Little Rock Central High School to attend your senior year. What made you go down this path?
I had fairly specific plans. Central had the reputation of being the best high school in the city, so if I maximized my high school with the best that they had, than I would help myself in terms of future activity, life, career, being able to help my family.

I was also aware of the event of the time, the Supreme Court decision, the Montgomery bus boycott. I felt that this was a way for me to be involved in broader issues as well as improve the future for myself.

Had you been prepared for such a negative response?
Little Rock had a reputation compared to some other communities, as being fairly progressive. They had desegregated the libraries, they had admitted a few black students to the medical school and to the University of Arkansas. I knew one of them. I didn't think I was walking into a buzz saw. Once we were there, it dawned on me that this was a slightly larger (issue) than where I went to school.

Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus called in the National Guard to block the building, and hordes of people stood outside the school who wanted to stop you from attending. What kept you going?
It was the immediate family support and people around me, the neighbors, the minister -- they all said it was time. They had the ability to see the future.

You finally were able to enter the school once President Eisenhower intervened three weeks later by sending in the 101st Airborne to escort you into the school. This was just to get through the door. Once you were in, what was that like?
That was just the beginning. Of the nine, I was the only senior and due to graduate. I felt once we got in, we could handle the work, and I saw myself with a path to graduation and it would be a personal achievement and an achievement for other African-American students coming after me. When you think about it, when you're 17 you think you can walk through walls.

We had soldier guards for two months. After Christmas, they withdrew the troops from the school. That's when the harassment -- kicking, shoving, spitting -- intensified. I felt the way to antagonize my enemy was to remain there. The more they dug in, the more determined I was to remain.

What is the legacy of the Little Rock Nine?
Obviously, when we started out, we didn't figure we would have this kind of impact of changing the world. At 17, all I wanted to do was get through the year, but not only did we get through the year, it became one of the turning points to democratizing the country.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20120215/us_yblog_upshot/a-member-of-the-little-rock-nine-looks-back

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