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2008 02 29

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Converted from paper version of the Broad Ripple Gazette (v05n05)

Minnijean recalled desegregation of 1957 - by Ashley Plummer

posted: Feb. 29, 2008

by Ashley Plummer

"What, do you ask, is the value of a story like that of the Little Rock Nine...Parables. You understand that if there are conditions that hurt you for what you are or what you stand for, and even if it's the law, you have the responsibility to change them."

A phrase that is just as true now as it was in 1957, was spoken by Minnijean Brown Trickey on February 21, 2008, at The Orchard School of Indianapolis. In cooperation with the Indianapolis Urban league, Big Hat Books and Global Gifts, and to help the city celebrate Black History Month, Trickey spoke to a nearly-full gymnasium on the issue of perseverance.

The free event brought out what appeared to be over 200 people on a cold and snowy night in the city, where spectators were educated not only on the events that took place in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September of 1957.

Minnijean Trickey at Orchard School.

For those who may not know the story, Trickey was a member of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. What followed their September enrollment would eventually be called the "Little Rock Crisis," because the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus.

Only after the intervention of U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower the students were able to enter the school building, due to the passage of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling over Brown v. Board of Education in May of 1954, which called for desegregation throughout all schools in the nation.

Joe Slash of the Indianapolis Urban League was on hand to introduce Trickey this night, which he proclaimed to be an extreme honor in light of the fact that Ms. Brown Trickey was involved in one of the most important aspects of the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s.

Joe Slash of the Indianapolis Urban League introduced Minnijean Trickey.

Trickey began by giving some personal background of what happened on that late September day in 1957.

"The scenes of the first day of school were on the televisions around the world, and they were the scenes and the graphic truths of people and protection under the law," she said.

"On the first day, the Little Rock Nine went to school until about 10:30. We were then pulled out of class and told we would have to leave because the mob was getting out of hand.

"Now I don't know about you. . . but the guys who were protecting me were white-knuckled and shaking," She continued. "Excuse me? How was I supposed to feel? I was just a kid. They were very frightened about what the mob would do and we had to go out a tunnel under the school."

Trickey continued by discussing what followed that first day-the President's intervention, the kids that would not give up, and, what she said at the time to be a blind resistance to just how much danger she and the other eight students were in but didn't realize.

"We were just kids. We were relatively safe at school, because we had the protection, so we kept going. But we were NOT safe at home."

She explained how every window in her room was broken by bricks and that her father lost his job and never worked for his company again.

"I don't know what kept us going," she said. "But I do know that in kids, resistance begins early."

She cited her first press conference as an example:

"I remember the interviewer asking me, 'why do you want to go to Central?' and I saying: 'When we are giving our lives in the war and working hard, it's okay. But when it comes time for equalization, we are turned down.'"

"I was 15 on that day, and when I look back at that footage, I realize I have not changed one bit," she said.

Trickey explained that up until the time that she was expelled from school (for declaring that she had the right to be in extracurricular activities) that there was terrorism inside and outside the school.

"We all thought it would be easy, and none of us understood institutional racism," she said. "We didn't understand, but we did know that we needed to keep going.

"In those first days, we learned we must stay. Everyone called us courageous, we thought we were just being silly kids. . . We giggled, made jokes. . . we had to figure out a way to keep our sanity while we were there."

Trickey closed by warning that sometimes "Silent witnesses" are the worst members of specific scenarios.

"Sometimes it's not the people who do the deed, but the people who stand around and do nothing," she said.

"In our case there were about 2000 white students at Little Rock.

There were 20 nice students who got terrorized the same way we did for smiling at us, and there were some 50-100 bad students, who, with the help of grown ups, kept up the terror inside and outside the school.

"Then there were close to 850 kids who watched and said nothing," she said.

"That is a really powerful lesson for us, now, in the future and in the past. Because of their silence, they were with the others."

Minnijean recalled desegregation of 1957 - by Ashley Plummer

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