LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — Monday, September 25, 2023, was the 66th anniversary of the desegregation of Central High School.
It commemorated the first time the Little Rock Nine walked through the doors for the first time. However, as the group returned to commemorate the day they also confronted current issues in Arkansas.
"We thought we could walk to Central. It was close enough. And it was also called the most beautiful high school in America, so who wouldn't want to go," said Minnijean Brown Trickey, one of the Little Rock Nine.
Brown Trickey remembered why she decided to initially go to Central.
"I think people would like to think we made this deep dark decision about how we would change the world. I don't think so," said Trickey Brown.
She described it as a decision that any teenager would make—the desire to go to a beautiful school— not thinking she would soon become a part of history.
In 1957, the nine students: Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson Thomas, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Minnijean Brown Trickey, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Thelma Mothershed, and Melba Pattillo Beals walked through the front doors of Central High School. Though not without a fight.
"Someone asked me once in terms about being at Central, 'what would you have added to that experience if you could?' I said I would have demanded at any given school day the nine of us and the kids intent on beating us up during that day would sit down together at a table and we would have a conversation," said Terrence Roberts.
Five of the nine had a panel discussion in the afternoon.
They said this anniversary has brought more questions about the work that still needs to be done, including the state legislature's decision to pass a law that prohibits the teaching of AP African American Studies in class.
"Suppressing knowledge does not serve us well," said Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine.
The final event of the day was a jazz ensemble put on by the No Tears Project. It was filled with music, dancing, and spoken word.