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Essay On Little Rock Nine

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Little Rock Nine On September 25, 2017, former President Bill Clinton opened the doors of Little Rock High School in Arkansas for the 40th reunion of the “Little Rock Nine.” Forty years ago, the desegregation of the school shook the nation. Nine African American teenagers decided to take a stand and do the unimaginable. Melba Pattillo Beals, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Thelma Mothershed, and Terrence Roberts were the tenacious students that helped force integration across the south, spun on the Civil Rights movement, and helped change the attitudes of millions. They wanted to show that they were equal, that the color of their skin does not define who they are. The task was far from easy, but if it wasn't for the courage, and strength of these nine students, who knows what the world would be like today. Many segregated schools that the black teens were forced to attend were overcrowded, run-down, and were not provided with books or supplies in good shape. Conversely, the schools for the white students were in better condition, and had newer book and supplies (Bubar 2).The local leader of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), Daisy Bates decided to prove a point. She wanted to give the not only the black students but all blacks just as many privileges and ‘luxuries’ as the white. She was much older than the students and had seen how blacks had got treated in the past and has seen many monumental actions such as Rosa Parks sitting on the bus. She used her platform to be a voice, her Husband and her owned the top African American newspaper offices in America and they stood up for the blacks that would never be heard, or get their voice out. She knew bundles upon bundles were getting mistreated and not getting their equal rights. Bates recruited nine black students to enroll at Central High, she thought that having kids do this would have more of an impact than an adult would, maybe the whites would be more considerate or think that something in society is wrong if children are having to do something about it. The nine students that she selected were the brightest, most kind hearted kids, they

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