Don't forget the Little Rock 9

Good day all, still catching my breath from a long weekend of family and friends in town, but wanted to post a quick note to commemorate the Little Rock 9 as today is the 50th anniversary of the date back in September of 1957 when 9 black students were escorted by federal troops into all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Even though segregation had been declared illegal in 1954, throughout the late 50's and early 60's there were many cases where segregation still existed. This became such a national issue because of the direct involvement of the Arkansas Governor at the time, Orval Faubus, and his stance against allowing the students to enter the school, going as far as to deploy the Arkansas National Guard to block the students from entering. It was such an intense situation that President Eisenhower had to send federal troops to provide safe passage for the students. Much needs to be said about the character and the courage of the 9 students just to show up and succeed amidst all the violence and chaos that surrounded their arrival. The strength shown by all of those to show up when the constant threat of violence, name calling, stares and disgust is a testimony to the human spirit and the ability to survive all obstacles with the right mindset. By no means were there crosses any easier to bear than what is facing our children now. The crazy thing about this whole situation is that the school, even though over 70% black now, was still under federal desegregation monitoring until earlier this year in 2007!

For more on this story, here is a link to CNN's coverage: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/24/integration.anniversary.ap/index.html