Iconic Images of Human Rights Violations (12): The Little Rock Nine

(source, photo by Will Counts)

(source, photo by Will Counts)

You can read the story behind this picture here. The African American girl in the foreground is Elizabeth Eckford, one of the so-called Little Rock Nine. On September 4, 1957, she and eight other African American students attempted to enter Little Rock Central High School, which had previously only accepted white students.

Orval Faubus

They were stopped at the door by Arkansas National Guard troops called up by Democratic Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, in defiance of a unanimous decision of the United States Supreme Court (Brown v. Board of Education). They tried again without success to attend Central High on September 23, 1957. The next day, September 24, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent U.S. Army troops to accompany the Little Rock Nine to school for protection.

The most prominent of the people screaming in the background is Hazel Bryan. Her scream became iconic of white hatred, and indeed you can see the hate in her face and you can almost hear the slur. She was only 15 years old at the time. Hazel, it turned out, never stopped thinking about the picture and trying to make amends for it. The two women even became friends, but the friendship didn’t last.

Here is the image from another perspective:

(source)

Here’s a picture of the women now:

More on segregation here. Suggest a new image in this series.