WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) -- 60 years ago today, nine African-American students entered Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was the first time students of color were permitted on campus after the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation of schools was unconstitutional.
Two days before the students were finally able to enter the school, they were faced by a large mob that became violent. 1,000 people cursed and fought against the students being in the same classrooms as white students. Due to a fear for their safety, the students were removed because police could not control the mobs.
Local police were forced to transport the nine students through the backdoor. This led to an order from President Eisenhower for 1,000 federal troops to help escort the students into class.
Where are the members of the Little Rock Nine today?
Melba Pattillo Beals
Beals graduated from San Francisco State University with a bachelor’s in journalism and eventually earned her Ph.D. from the Universtiy of San Francisco. She was a reporter at San Francisco’s NBC affiliate and has written two books. She currently serves as the Communications Department at Dominican University.
Carlotta Walls Lanier
Lanier graduated from the University of Northern Colorado and currently serves as the President of the Little Rock Nine Foundation. She’s also a real estate broker and operates a company alongside her son.
Elizabeth Eckford
Eckford was a probation officer for the First Division Circuit Court of Pulaski County who has also served in the U.S. Army, served as a military journalist and a social studies teacher. Eckford graduated from Central State University with a bachelor's degree in history and currently lives in Little Rock.
Ernest Green
Green joined Lehman Brothers in 1987 as a senior managing director and has also served on numerous boards such as the NAACP and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. A movie about his life was also created by the Disney Channel in 1992 called "The Ernest Green Story." Green was also in Black Enterprise Magazine's 2006 list of the "75 Most Powerful Blacks on Wall Street."
Gloria Ray Karlmark
Karlmark was the editor in chief of Computers in Industry, an international journal of computer applications in industry. Karlmark then went to the Netherlands to work for Philips Telecommunications. Karlmark, the granddaughter of a former slave, retired in 1994.
Jefferson Thomas
Thomas served in the U.S. Army and was specifically sent to South Vietnam. He also operated a family business before earning his bachelor’s in business administration. Jefferson retired in 2004 and passed away in 2010 after battling pancreatic cancer.
Minnijean Brown Trickey
Trickey graduated from Southern Illinois University with a degree in journalism before getting another degree in social work from Carleton University in Ontario, Canada. She then became a social activist and served in the Clinton administration as a deputy assistant secretary for workforce diversity at the Department of Interior. She was the subject of a documentary about her life and has since returned to Canada.
Terrence J. Roberts
Roberts received his Ph.D from Southern Illinois University in psychology before becoming the CEO of Terrence J. Roberts and Associates, a management consultant firm. Roberts was also an assistant dean at the UCLA School of Welfare from 1985 to 1993. He has written books about racism reflecting on his experiences.
Thelma Mothershed-Wair
Wair worked at a juvenile detention center of the St. Clair County Jail. She also worked in the East St. Louis, Illinois school system for 28 years before retiring in 1994. Mothershed-Wair now lives in Little Rock.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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