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Little Rock 9 Marks 50th Anniversary

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By PEGGY HARRIS and ANDREW DeMILLO, The Associated Press

Published: September 26, 2007

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The Little Rock Nine, once barred from Central High School because they are black, arrived on its soggy campus in limousines Tuesday as the community marked 50 years since President Eisenhower directed soldiers to escort the students inside.

'You can overcome adversity if you know you are doing the right thing,' said Carlotta Walls Lanier, one of the nine.

About 4,500 people gathered on the front lawn of the inner-city campus, where the high school is now 52 percent black, to commemorate one of the key moments in the civil rights movement.
Former President Clinton held open the school's doors in a symbolic gesture.

'I am grateful we had a Supreme Court that saw 'separate but equal' and 'states rights' for the shams they were, hiding our desire to preserve the oppression of African-Americans, and I am grateful more than I can say that we had a president who was determined to enforce the order of the court,' Clinton said.

The two-hour ceremony included brief remarks by each of the Little Rock Nine: Melba Patillo Beals, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls Lanier, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, Minnijean Brown Trickey and Thelma Mothershed Wair.

'The thing I feared most in my life were white policemen. White policemen have guarded me these last few days. I've spoken to them. We've talked to each other,' Beals said. 'As I stepped out of my limousine, a white man who doesn't know me reached for the collar, the lapel, of my coat, and straightened it.'

Society has made progress, but Gov. Mike Beebe and Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola noted that economic and educational inequalities still exist.

In September 1957, then-Gov. Orval Faubus used the Arkansas National Guard to keep nine black children out of Central High, saying that court-ordered integration would spark mob violence. He didn't admit he helped manufacture the crisis to boost his segregationist credentials.

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