Little Rock Nine Essay

The picture I am painting is of Little Rock Nine. It was about nine black kids who enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957 which was a very segregated time; it was an all white school. When white people found out black kids was going to be attending the school they was furious. They reacted poorly; there were mobs of white people waiting for the kids outside of the school. They yelled racist slurs at the black kids, threw food, and even attacked them. In the picture I’m drawing is Elizabeth Eckford, she was one of the nine students. She didn’t graduate from Little Rock Central High School though only Earnest Green, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls graduated. In the picture she is wearing glasses and walking through the crowd as they screamed in her face, she never lost her composure; she kept calm as if they weren’t even around. Little Rock Nine was important in the Civil Rights movement because they were the first black students to be allowed to attend an all white high school, after the use of segregation was deemed unconstitutional. The event is considered very important to the Civil Rights Movement, because it was supported by the president at the time Dwight D. Eisenhower and because it gave insight into the plight of the African American, and how poorly they were treated. What struck me about this moment in history is how the nine kids didn’t quit even though white people tormented them. That type of drive inspires me to never give up even when times get hard because there will always be a good outcome out of every bad situation, even if you don’t see it right away, because when your down you can only go up.