Whistlestop FEBRUARY 2011
E PRESS
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African-American History Month
Dominican Professor Reflects on Her Experience as One of the Little Rock Nine by JOHN BOWMAN
W
hen Melba Pattillo Beals walks the halls of Dominican University, a stirring chapter in American history walks with her. Dr. Beals, chair of Dominican’s Communications Department, where she teaches journalism, is a member of the Little Rock Nine, the group of African-American students who integrated Little Rock, Arkansas, Central High School in 1957. In honor of African-American History Month, Whistlestop Express had a conversation with Dr. Beals recently. Her name and those of the other eight students are forever linked to the names of Gov. Orval Faubus and President Dwight D. Eisenhower. She and her classmates found themselves in the middle of one of the most dramatic showdowns in U.S. history, pitting the President against the governor. Faubus defied the U.S.
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Supreme Court decision in Brown v Board of Education, which called for the desegregation of all public schools in the United States. The governor used the Arkansas National Guard to block black children from entering Central High School. President Eisenhower countered on Sept. 24, 1957, by ordering the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army to Little Rock and by federalizing the entire 10,000 member Arkansas National Guard, taking it out of the hands of the governor. Melba Pattillo was 16 years old at the time and recalls, “The struggle, the shock of the struggle stunned me. As a child you do not expect it to be such a struggle, to experience such violence. You don’t expect human beings to treat other human beings that way. It takes a great deal of energy to survive such extraordinary danger.” The danger was immense. Melba and her friends were met by a menacing crowd of
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Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals 1,000 screaming adults and children at the school, including men carrying ropes. One of the most famous photographs from that period shows an erect and determined Melba walking toward the school with a mob of white people behind her and one white girl screaming at her back, the girl’s face contorted into a hateful countenance. Someone later threw acid into Melba’s face. “My bodyguard (Danny) acted swiftly,” she recalls. “He rushed me to a water fountain and we Continued on page 7 R L N V D R L N T L R D D L V R N ND T L F R R D L T BN N T T R R N P H L P P V J P R T F T P T N D R V T D P D DD N B L R D L D H H R
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