'Little Rock Nine' members mark school's 1957 desegregation

[Judi Lynn]

Andrew Demillo, Associated Press
Updated 9:06 pm, Friday, September 22, 2017

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — When she saw images unfold from a deadly white supremacist rally this summer in Virginia, Minnijean Brown Trickey immediately thought about the angry mob she and eight other black students faced when they integrated an all-white high school in Little Rock 60 years ago.

"That triggered me so much and watching the mindless mob action just touched me, and I thought, 'This is 60 years later. I can't believe this happened in this time,'" Trickey said Friday, referring to the violence that erupted at a rally of white nationalists opposed to the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

 
"So where did I see it last? In Virginia or wherever people coalesce into mindless violence," she added.

Trickey and the seven other surviving members of the "Little Rock Nine" — who were escorted by federal troops into Little Rock's Central High School in September 1957 — gathered at the University of Arkansas' Clinton School of Public Service for a joint news conference to kick off a series of events commemorating the desegregation anniversary. Some of the surviving members said 60 years ago, they tried to focus more on having the opportunity to attend the school rather than the mobs screaming threats and insults at them.

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/education/article/Little-Rock-Nine-members-mark-school-s-1957-12221280.php