"Elizabeth Eckford"(born October 4,1941)

Was one of  the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who,in 1957 were the first ever to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas.The integration came as a result of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.Her image was captured and shown around the world after photographer Will Counts snapped her being chased by an angry white mob down the street.She was born in Little Rock Arkansas.Oscar and Birdie Eckford were her parents.She was one of six children.Elizabeth father worked nights as a dining car maintenance worker for the Missouri Pacific Railroad's Little Rock station.Her mother taught at a segregated state school for blind and deaf children,instructing them how to wash and iron.She first attended Horace Mann high School in Little Rock.On September 4 1957,Elizabeth and eight African American students (known Rock Nine) made an unsuccessful attempt to enter Little Rock Central High School,which had been segregated.With the complicity of the National Guard an angry mob of about 400 surrounded the school.As fifteen-year-old Elizabeth tried to enter the school,soldiers of the National Guard,under orders from Arkansas Governor Faubus,would step in her to prevent her from entering.Eventually,she gave up and tried to flee to a bus stop through the mob of segregationists who surrounded her and threatended to lynch her.Once she got to the bus stop she couldn't stop crying.A reporter,Benjamin Fine having in mind his own 15-year-old daughter,sat down next to Elizabeth.He tried to comfort her and told her," don't let them see you cry.Soon, she was also protected by a white woman named Grace Lorch who escorted her onto a city bus.The plan was to have the nine children arrive together,but when the meeting place was changed the night before,the Eckford family's lack of a telephone left Elizabeth uniformed of the charge.instructions was given by Daisy Bates, a strong activists for desegregation,for the nine students to wait for her so that they could all walk together to the rear of the school.This last minute change caused Elizabeth to be the first to take a different route to school,walking up to the front entrance completely alone.Even through Elizabeth Eckford would one day be known as a member of the Little Rock Nine,at this point in the school day,she was all alone,making her the first African-American student to integrate a white southern high school.Weeks later the National Guard were removed,and the protection of the students left to the local police.On September 23,1957,a mob of about 1000people surrounded the school as the students attempted to enter.But the students were able to enter unobstrucucted after the mob attacked a group of Black reporters,including L Alex Wilson of the Memphis Tri-State Defender.The following day,President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent U.S. Army troops to accompany the students to school for protection.The troops were stationed at the school for the entire school year,although they were unable to prevent daily incidents of violence,such as when She was thrown a flight of stairs.All of the city's high schools were closed the following year,so Elizabeth did not graduate from central from Central High School.However,she had taken correspondence and night courses garnering enough credits for her high school diploma.In 1958,she and the rest of the Little Rock Nine were awarded Spingarn Medal by the NAACP, as was Ms.Bates.Elizabeth was accepted by Knox College in Illinois,but she left,returning to be near her family in Little Rock.She would later attend Central State University in Wilberforce,Ohio,where she earned  a BA in history.She served in the United States Army for five years,first as pay clerk,and then as an information specialist.She also wrote for the Fort McCellan (Alabama) and the Fort Benjamin Harrison (Indiana)newspaper.After that,she has worked as a waitress,history teacher,welfare worker,unemployment and employment interviewer,and a military reporter.She is a probation officerin Little Rock.In 1997 Elizabeth shared the Father Joseph Bitz Award (presented by the National Conference for Community and Justice) with Hazel Bryan Massery,a segregationist classmate who appears in the Will Counts photograph screaming at Elizabeth.During the reconciliation rally of 1997,the two women made speeches together.In 1999,President Bill Clinton presented the nation's highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal, to the members of the Little Rock Nine.On the moring of January 1, 2003, one of her two sons,Erin Eckford,age 26,was shot and killed by police in Little Rock.The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette  reported that the police officers had unsuccessfully tried to disarm him with a beanbag round after he had fired several shots from his military style rifle.When Mr. Eckford pointed his rifle towards them,the police officers shot him.Elizabeth feared that his death was "suicide by police."Erin,she said,had suffered from mental iliness but had been of his prescribed medication for several years.On June 18,2003,the newspaper reported that prosecutors investigating the fatal shooting had decided that the police officers concerned were justified in shooting Mr.Eckford.