There have been many influential people throughout history that have changed the way people think. One of those people came to Poplar Bluff High School.

With the help of Stephanie Million and the Claudia Foundation, Ms. Elizabeth Eckford came to our high school to tell us her story of her life during the civil rights movement, and how she contributed to it.

Eckford is famous for being a part of the Little Rock Nine. They were nine African-American students who were the first to be integrated into Arkansas’s Central High School.

Eckford started her presentation with the first school she went to. She first went to Dunbar High, an all black school, where she was a very quiet and studious worker. Eckford kept to herself and wanted to make something of herself.

Her principal made announcement that there was going to be a desegregation of Central High, the all white school in the area.

Students had to sign up if they wanted to take a chance to be integrated into Central.

There were two requirements for the students. They had to have good grades, and they could not be troublemakers. Later on Eckford found out that being a troublemaker had two meanings. One was you couldn’t have a trouble making record, and the students parents couldn’t be part of the National Advancement of Colored People.

The NAACP were the main group that wanted schools to be integrated, and other activities that would further the lives of African-Americans.

Eckford decided to sign the list, but she had to get a permission form signed by her parents. She knew this would be a problem because she called her mother “the Queen of No.” Her mother was a very protective parent.

Her grandfather was the one to finally encourage her mother to let her go, and he was Eckford’s inspiration to get a good education.

During that time, Eckford wanted to be an attorney and knew she needed to go to Central to get to that point, because Dunbar only taught career paths that had to do with being electricians, seamstresses, cooks and maids.

They were not giving the classes that some white students got, because they did not believe black students would excel in anything but menial work.

On the day she was supposed to meet with the other eight students, who would be part of the desegregation movement, Eckford met in the wrong place. There had been a meeting with all the parents and children who would be integrated, and Eckford’s family had no phone, so no one was able to communicate with her to tell her the meeting place had been moved.

The next day Eckford came upon a screaming mob of white protesters, and the Arkansas National Guard was standing in front.

Eckford walked up to the mob, hoping to get through so she could get to class, but the soldiers were not there to let her pass. They were there to keep her out.

Eckford tried twice but was rejected by the crowd of people, and the soldiers. She walked off to go wait for another bus to take her home.

She was then confronted by two reporters. They sat with her on the bench. Benjamin Fine, a white reporter from New York, told Eckford, “Don’t let them see you cry.”

Soon protesters were coming near Eckford with the intent to harm her. She started walking away. To avoid the mob, she walked the long way to get to her mothers’ work.

Eckford was greeted by her crying mother. A radio report said she had been killed, and her father was out looking for her.

It was decided that the desegregation would be postponed.

The governor of Arkansas at the time, Orval Faubus, and President Dwight Eisenhower, discussed the issue of the Nine not being able to get into Central. Faubus said the only reason he put the Arkansas National Guard out there was to protect the students, and the mob crowd.

Eisenhower sent over a 1,000 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, to help the Arkansas National Guard to protect the Nine children as they walked into Central High. On Sept. 25, 1957, all of the Little Rock Nine were escorted into Central High.

All of the Nine were told not to talk to anyone and not to join any extra curricular activities. No one sat next to her or around her. All the students treated her as if she had some disease.

It wasn’t until the late 90’s that Eckford could tell someone all the anger she felt from her being put into Central.

Eckford today believes she made a difference. She says, “We knew it was going to be a change. We knew there would be a chance of equality in education.”

Once she was able to talk about it she went around America telling people of all ages her stories.

Today she is an attorney, and she says she enjoys gardening and reading.

She left with a quote about students: “They are in charge of their future, and education is preparation for the future.”