Parent Teacher Magazine Union County Public Schools March/April 2019 | Page 9

Civil rights legend Minnijean Brown-Trickey shares Little Rock Nine experiences with CATA students
In the fall of 1957, the world
watched as Minnijean Brown-Trickey
walked past armed guards and an
angry mob into the formerly all-white
Little Rock Central High School.
As a young teen, she had no idea
that school year would mark a defining
moment in civil rights history and
help set America on the path toward
desegregation in public schools.
Brown-Trickey also didn’t realize
that being a member of the Little Rock
Nine would also spark her decades-
long advocacy of civil rights that
most recently brought her to Central
Academy of Technology and Arts
(CATA) on Feb. 25 where she talked
about her experiences overcoming
racism to the school’s student body.
The Little Rock Nine isn’t just
black history, she told the students.
It’s quintessential American history
as it includes all of the components
of historical significance (i.e., the
Constitution, US Supreme Court,
federal courts, use of state militia,
federal law, etc.).
“It was a very United States event
that kind of gets relegated to the back
of a book but it was as important as any
moment in the United States,” she told
the students. “At some point, it will get
its place in the middle of history books
and will have the value it should.”
After watching clips of the Little
Rock Nine featured on an episode
of the Oprah Winfrey show and the
critically acclaimed Eyes on the Prize
documentary series, CATA students had
the opportunity to participate in a Q&A
session with the civil rights legend.
For more than an hour, the students
packed into a single-file line and
peppered Brown-Trickey with questions
about her resilience and emotional
strength, experiences and thoughts
about racism and segregation then
and today.
“When I heard that she was coming,
I started to actually think about her
experiences. She’s been through so
much that I can’t even imagine,” CATA student Ethan Cammer
said. “She talked about choices and how we all have choices to be
a bystander or witness to something that is happening. All of those
little choices that we make every day are extremely important.”
The auditorium was silent as all of the students hung
onto Brown-Trickey’s every word, at times applauding and
cheering graciously.
In response to one student’s
question about how she was able to
endure so much intense hatred from
adults and her classmates at such a
young age, Brown-Trickey said the
angry mob taught her more than
any other thing in her whole life.
“I said I would never lose my
mind or be mean like that. I would
never be like them,” she said.
“Watching the mob, when I see their
pictures and I see our pictures -- we
won. They gave away their dignity
and it landed on us. We were just
nine kids – I didn’t understand blind
hatred then and I still don’t.”
After the program, many of the
students asked for Brown-Trickey for
autographs, an opportunity to take a
photo with her or even a chance to
shake her hand and say thank you.
“In history classes, they touch
on the Little Rock Nine and say that
it happened and it was significant.
Now I realize that it had such a
greater impact on more than that area of Little Rock but on the
entire world,” CATA student Ava Grismer said. “You can actually be
the change instead of just standing by. Everyone has a voice and
passion and you can use that to spread the messages you want
people to hear.”
Parent Teacher Magazine • Mar/Apr 2019 • 7