little rock nine News

little rock nine News From AOL News

Little Rock 9 Member Jefferson Thomas Dies at 67

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Sept. 6) -- Jefferson Thomas was fast and athletic and often played pickup basketball with white students while growing up in Little Rock in the 1950s. But when Thomas became one of nine black students to integrate Arkansas' largest high school, many of his basketball buddies weren't happy to see him in...

Background on little rock nine

The Little Rock Nine was a group of African-American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The ensuing Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, and then attended after the intervention of President Eisenhower, is considered to be one of the most important events in the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

more at wikipedia »