Member of 'Little Rock Nine' shares story, motivates students in Dunmore

Jan. 13—DUNMORE — Minnijean Brown Trickey looked forward to attending Little Rock Central High School.

With the U.S. Supreme Court striking down segregation in schools in 1954, Trickey could enroll in the school only 10 blocks from her home. She could walk to school with her friends, instead of attending a school on the other side of town.

Though she lived in the Jim Crow South of the 1950s, her family and the Black community largely protected the 15-year-old from hatred and racism.

She never expected what awaited she and eight other Black students on Sept. 3, 1957. An angry mob and the Arkansas National Guard prevented the students, called the "Little Rock Nine," from entering the school.

"On the first day, let me tell you, everything I had ever believed about goodness, everything I had ever believed or had been taught to believe about my country, shattered," said Trickey, who spoke at Penn State Scranton on Friday as part of the campus' Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. "There was a mob of people who were screaming death, hatred."

Speaking to more than 150 school staff, students and local residents, Trickey encouraged the audience members to learn as much as they could, appreciate complexities and not let anyone else define their comfort zones.

The Little Rock Nine finally had their first day of school on Sept. 25, 1957, after President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered units of the Army's 101st Airborne Division into Little Rock and federalized the Arkansas National Guard.

Trickey, now 81 and a resident of Canada, endured taunting, threats and harassment daily. Many white students became silent witnesses, wanting to help the nine Black students but afraid of retaliation. She faced suspension when she stood up for herself, dropping chili on boys after they refused to let her pass to her seat in the cafeteria.

In February 1958, a girl hit Trickey in the back of the head with a purse filled with combination locks. Trickey called her "white trash" and was expelled. After her expulsion, students passed around cards that read, "One down, eight to go."

Trickey finished high school in New York City, living with social psychologists, whose work had been used in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. She went on to pursue a career committed to peacemaking, environmental issues, developing youth leadership and social justice advocacy. She served in the Clinton Administration as deputy assistant secretary for workforce diversity at the Department of the Interior and is the recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal.

From the moment Trickey and her classmates had been met by the mob, she told herself that she would spend the rest of her life trying to ensure no one else had to endure such hatred. She called the Little Rock crisis not Black history, but American history that students need to learn about. Civil rights should be seen as human rights, she said.

"There is nothing more frightening than a group of people who have lost their minds," she said. "People wanted to kill nine teenagers."

She encouraged those in the audience to speak to others, understand their stories and fight for what is right.

"There is so much to know," she said, directing her comments to the students in the audience. "Read as much as you can. You can do anything."

Students left Friday's event feeling inspired and motivated.

"If no one else is going to do something, you do it yourself," Dunmore resident Raj Gandhi, 19, said.

Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9133; @hofiushallTT on Twitter.