Exploring Media: Little Rock Nine

In May of 1957 the U.S. Supreme Court declared that all segregated schools were deemed unconstitutional and ruled that schools should included both black and white students. This particular photo deals with a school in Little Rock, Arkansas which nine African American students enrolled and attended a white dominated school for the first time.

The African American lady in this photo is Elizabeth Eckford, who attempted to attend school on September 4th, 1957, along with 8 other African American peers. She was “stopped at the door by the Arkansans National Guard troops called up by Arkansas Goveror Orval Faubus” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Eckford). She and the eight others tried again without success to attend the school. Only until President Eisenhower sent U.S. Army troops to accompany the Little Rock Nine to school for protection did they manage to successfully attend class.

This photo presents an interesting dichotomy on social justice; on the one hand it depicts a black woman successfully attending a predominately white school for the first time. Yet on the other, we can see various forms of social injustice demonstrated by the scorn of the fellow white students in the background.