Lauretta Underwood, 72, said she can clearly remember the day her mother told her she was about to witness history as she was dropped off at school.
Following the landmark Supreme Court case Brown V. Board of Education, which made school segregation unconstitutional, Central High School and the state of Arkansas became a national symbol of integration resistance, according to the Arkansas Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.
The school board complied with the law and adopted a plan to integrate, beginning at the high school level and working down to the lower grades starting in 1957, according to the website.
On Sept. 2, 1957, nine African American students who volunteered to attend Central High School were stopped by the Arkansas National Guard under the direction of Gov. Orval Faubus, who asserted the students’ entrance to the school would cause violence, the website states.
President Dwight Eisenhower brought in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division to ensure the students were allowed to attend the school on Sept. 25.
Mrs. Underwood said mobs of people, many of whom were mothers, were protesting and the soldiers formed a perimeter around the school, but she was not afraid as she entered.
“In a way, you felt safe because you knew they were there to keep things under control, and there were tanks and trucks everything — it was like a warzone,” she said.
She said, before the airborne division came in, students flocked to the windows as an innocent black man was beaten and dragged down the street by a mob. From her vantage point, she wasn’t exactly sure who stopped the violence, but it appeared the National Guard wasn’t doing much.
“Best I can remember, he was just an innocent guy walking down the street, and there was a mob, and they were going to take it out on him,” she said.
“The people that were protesting the most were the mothers,” she said. “The fathers were at work. (It was) not all of them, a minority were … protesting.”
Some mothers picked up their children from school that first day if they had a class with an African American student, and one of them addressed Earnest Green while he was in study hall, she said.
“Most of the mothers who came to get their kids were quiet and respectful, but one (that) came to the door when I was in study hall was not,” she said. “I won’t (repeat) what she said, but it’s still in my memory. He just put his head on his desk — never said a word.”
Mrs. Underwood said study hall was the only class she had with Earnest, and speaking was not allowed in the class. She said, although they were never friends, she considered him to be very nice, polite and intelligent.
The two also shared a lunch period and after the resistance that day, Earnest ate lunch by himself.
“Part of me wanted to get up and join him,” she said. “I knew that was the right and Christian thing to do, however, I did not have the courage to do so, and no one else at my table would go with me.”
Mrs. Underwood said after a few days, a group of boys found the courage to sit with Earnest and he gradually made friends at the school.
Despite the initial resistance, most students did not go out of their way to make the nine student’s lives difficult, she said.
“Most of the kids were pleasant to the nine, or at least ignored them, but there were some who were cruel and harassed them constantly,” she said. “They were the minority. The majority were either nice to them or left them alone.”
Mrs. Underwood said the ceremony was held outside in the school’s stadium and Earnest was booed and jeered at as he walked across the stage during rehearsal.
A strong police presence was at the actual ceremony, and Mrs. Underwood said she became anxious as Earnest’s name was called out.
“I didn’t want them to do that to him,” she said. “He was such a nice guy, so when he called his name, I was holding my breath. There wasn’t one sound, one jeer, one boo one anything — it was just quiet.”
Looking back on the historical year, Mrs. Underwood said she had one regret.
“I know as a Christian I felt really bad for not befriending Earnest, but I’m happy to see hearts have melted and race relations have improved,” she said. “I pray they will continue to get better.”