The More Things Change: Remembering the "Little Rock Nine"

Volunteering came at a high price. “I was assigned a personal tormentor—we all were—whose job it was to follow me everywhere in the school and make my life miserable, with punches, kicks, and taunts,” he said, who was then a rather skinny 15-year-old junior. “And he wasn’t the only one.”

Eventually, he and the tormentor—one Jerry Tully—had to wrestle in gym class. When Roberts won rather decisively, he was surrounded after class by a circle of white boys who wouldn’t let him pass. “One massive boy—much bigger than Jerry—approached me slowly with a baseball bat in his hand. He said, ‘If you weren’t so small…,” dropped the bat, and walked away,” Robert said. “I told my body it was time to go, but I just couldn’t move

Having lunch with his mother in Pasadena 20 years later, he learned that she had gotten a call telling her that he had been beaten so badly that he wouldn’t live out the hour. “She rushed to school and the principal showed her that I was safe in class, but she knew that wouldn’t be the end of it,” Roberts said. “It’s hard to imagine the pressure our parents felt."

Resegregation

Answering questions afterwards, Roberts and Samad decried the lack of progress over the past 50 years. “There has been a massive, organized resistance to integration,” Roberts said. “Little Rock was just a part of it, a small part."

“The Cold War was on when the Supreme Court passed Brown v. Board of Education,” Samad said. “Our government was reacting to criticism from Russia about our civil rights abuses. So, when theCourt said school integration should proceed ‘with all deliberate speed,’ that meant ‘sloooowly.’”

In "The More Things Stay the Same: A Personal Story on Desegregation," Sharon shares her own parallel experiences during the 1970s. Pressed for solutions to the lack of progress on desegregation since Little Rock, Roberts returned to the role of taking personal responsibility. “Read a book every week,” he admonished the students in the audience. “Read two. Raising our own kids, my wife and I decided not to have a television in the house. They’ve become delightful young adults, in part thanks to that, I think.”

Celebrating 50 Years

Central High was closed for the 1958-59 school year, so Roberts finished high school in Los Angeles and later went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in sociology, a master’s degree in social welfare, and a doctorate in psychology. With his Central High classmates, Roberts formed the Little Rock Nine Foundation to promote the ideals of justice and equality of opportunity for all. On September 25, all nine former students will speak at an anniversary celebration at Little Rock’s Central High, along with President George Bush and former President Bill Clinton. “We’ll use it to raise funds for the scholarships our foundation provides,” he said.

For upcoming Urban Issues Breakfast Forums, attorney Tom Mesereau has been invited to speak on “Race and the Law: The Jena Six Case” on October 5th and Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. has been invited to speak on “Homeownership Loss: The Impact of Predatory Lending” on October 26th. Doors at the African-American Museum open at 7:30 a.m., and a free and hearty breakfast is served. The forums re free and nearby parking is $6. RSVP's requested.

Dick Price is the corresponding secretary for the Northeast Democratic Club, edits the Club's "Northeast Democrat" newsletter and maintains its Webpage. In his spare time, Dick publishes magazines for the IEEE Computer Society.