Elizabeth Eckford: The Teenager Who Endured a Year of Torment for Enrolling in an All-White School

Elizabeth Eckford, born on October 4, 1941, was one of the Little Rock Nine, the first group of African American students to integrate Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas in 1957. Her bravery became iconic when, on September 4, 1957, she faced a hostile mob of white protesters and armed soldiers alone, maintaining her composure despite threats and racial slurs. For a year, she endured relentless torment from white students but remained unfazed. Her journey, marked by bravery in the face of torment, became a defining moment in the American civil rights movement.

The integration of Little Rock Central High School was a direct result of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. However, the ruling faced fierce resistance in the South. In 1957, Elizabeth Eckford and eight other Black students—collectively known as the Little Rock Nine—attempted to enroll at the previously all-white high school. Their efforts were met with violent opposition from segregationists, including Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, who deployed the Arkansas National Guard to block their entry.

On September 4, 1957, nervous yet excited, Elizabeth Eckford arrived at Little Rock Central High School alone, unaware that the meeting point for the group had been changed the night before. The students were supposed to enter together, escorted by Black and white ministers, but her family, lacking a telephone, never received the updated instructions. Dressed in a starched black-and-white dress and wearing dark sunglasses, the 15-year-old clutched her schoolbooks and walked calmly toward the entrance.

She was immediately confronted by a mob of about 400 white protesters and armed soldiers. The crowd hurled racial slurs, chanted, “Two, four, six, eight, we ain’t gonna integrate,” and threatened to lynch her. Men, women, and white students blocked her path as she desperately tried to enter the school. Blocked from going into the school, she returned to the bus stop through the hate-filled segregationists screaming and yelling: “Lynch her, lynch her!”

An iconic image captured by Will Counts showed the fifteen year old young girl being followed and threatened by an angry white mob; this and other photos of the day’s startling events were circulated around the US and the world by the press. Despite her fear, Eckford maintained her composure, later recalling, “I tried to find a friendly face in the mob. I didn’t see any.”

After President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened by federalizing the Arkansas National Guard and deploying the 101st Airborne Division to escort the students, the Little Rock Nine were finally able to enter the school on September 25, 1957. However, the viciousness of the white students continued throughout the school year, Eckford and her peers endured relentless harassment, physical violence, and isolation.: “We routinely endured items being thrown at us and being burned by cigarettes.”

The psychological toll was immense, and she later revealed that she struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and attempted suicide twice in the years that followed.

Despite the hatred, Eckford persevered, attending classes and completing her coursework. However, after Governor Faubus was reelected in 1958, he refused to allow desegregation to continue and instead shut down all of Little Rock’s public schools. Many Southern school districts followed suit, either closing schools entirely or implementing school-choice programs that subsidized white students’ attendance at private segregated academies, which were not covered by the Supreme Court’s decision. Little Rock Central High School did not reopen with a desegregated student body until 1960, and efforts to integrate schools and other public areas throughout the country continued through the 1960s.

Determined to complete her education, Eckford earned her high school diploma through correspondence and night courses. She went on to attend Central State University in Ohio, earning a degree in history. She later served in the U.S. Army for five years as a pay clerk and information specialist. Over the years, she worked in various roles, including as a waitress, history teacher, and probation officer.

In recognition of her lifelong commitment to justice and equality, Eckford was awarded an honorary doctorate from Knox College in 2018.

In 1997, Eckford and Hazel Bryan Massery, the white student seen screaming at her in the iconic photograph, publicly reconciled and shared the Father Joseph Biltz Award for their efforts toward racial healing. However, their friendship eventually dissolved, as Eckford felt Massery sought absolution rather than true understanding. In 1999, Eckford and the other members of the Little Rock Nine were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Bill Clinton.

Eckford’s life was not without personal struggles. She never married but raised two sons. Tragically, one of her sons, who suffered from mental illness, was shot and killed by police in Little Rock in 2003 after a neighbor reported him for firing a rifle into the air.

In 2018, she co-authored her first autobiography, The Worst First Day: Bullied While Desegregating Little Rock Central High, which recounts her harrowing experiences as a teenager at Little Rock Central High School.

In November 2022, Eckford was honoured at the keel-laying ceremony for the USS Arkansas, a nuclear-powered attack submarine. Alongside other members of the Little Rock Nine, she etched her initials onto metal plates that will remain affixed to the submarine throughout its life. Reflecting on the event, Eckford drew parallels between the bravery of the U.S. military and her own experiences, stating, “President Eisenhower sent 1,000 paratroopers to Little Rock to disperse a mob, bring order, and they made it possible for us to enter Central High School. From that point, I’ve had very high regard for specially trained forces.”

Now 83 years old, Elizabeth Eckford remains a living symbol of strength and perseverance.

Sources:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/elizabeth-and-hazel-excerpt-how-oprah-dissed-a-civil-rights-icon/

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jan-03-na-littlerock3-story.html

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/elizabeth-eckford/the-worst-first-day/