Kelley's group - Little Rock

Picture this: You are a 15 year old girl that is doing everything you can in order to receive a quality education. I mean you are genuinely wanting to learn about the various subjects that every other child in the country is learning about. You've been told all your life that education is the key to a better life. The plan is that after high school you are hopefully going to college and then once you receive that degree you will have better job opportunities than your parents and grandparents could even imagine. Now during this point and time in our lives, most parents don't want their teenagers to work because our job is to get the best grades possible and you must stay focused on that. If there is a sport or some other type of extracurricular activity that you are interested in participating in, then you go for it. In between classes and extracurricular, you are able to enjoy life with all of your friends that you have in high school Eating lunch together, walking down the halls laughing about a joke someone made in your last class, just enjoying life.

Well unfortunately that was not the life that every 15 yr. old girl or boy was able to have while going to high school. The Little Rock Nine did all they could to attend Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas. They not only had to worry about being successful in the classroom, but they had to be concerned about whether or not they would be able to make it into the school doors without being harmed. Once they got passed the school doors, they had to be concerned about: whether or not multiple students would have something negative to say; to spit on them; ruin their school books; throw baseballs at them during gym class; wondering if a group of students were waiting to flush their heads in the toilets once they were in the bathrooms; or even worry that teachers didn't really want to teach them.

Really, can you imagine on a daily basis having to wonder if you were going to make it home safely from school each day all because you were wanting a quality education?

Having the ability to walk the same grounds of the Little Rock Nine was both heart wrenching and empowering at the same time. It's hard to imagine that people could be so hateful towards a child because they were trying to get the education that was supposedly promised to them as a birth right here in the United States. It's also hard to hear and see the things that these teenagers had to endure on a daily basis. Taking that walk from the beginning pathway of the school and up those stairs to the front door is something that takes about 3 minutes at a easy going pace. I can only imagine that in their time, that 3 minute walk usually took the Little Rock Nine about 10 minutes to get through. Having to make their way through the mobs of people trying to protest their presence there, while having the National Guards encamped around the Little Rock Nine for protection.

How many of you think that you would be able to deal with everything that they did and still be successful in high school?