the local newspaper the Arkansas Gazette at that time indicated that the brown decision was going to change the face of the South forever I remember those words and I thought to myself good because I think the face of the South ought to change I will not force my people to integrate against their will the governor of the state Orval Faubus decided that he was going to use central as his point of resistance none of us have anion anticipated that the resistance would be as strong as it was the night before we were to go to
school the governor called out the Arkansas National Guard unbeknownst to us and when we appeared it's at Central the first day sealed off the National Guard was there to bar our entrance and let white students go into the school what it was like it was rejection that I had never experienced like that it seemed to me that if they were going to all of this trouble to keep me out there was something bigger than my simply going to class only when we got home from school that Dave did we realize what an ordeal personal ordeal
Elizabeth's had gone through and that she certainly faced more of the mob directly I always applaud the fact that she was able to keep both her composure and try to figure out how to get out of that we started school on the 25th of September President Eisenhower sends 500 troops of the hundred and first Airborne Division of the United States Army it was a terrific filling that President of the United States would send troops to escort us into school I didn't know what was going to happen after that it was like going to war every
day you had students who tried to use as much verbage as they could intimidate us we had threats and comments that you know we would be killed for all of us we decided that this was a year that we were going to support each other we were going to try to do as well as we could in a academic work some were a lot smarter than me but I also was determined that this year I was going to graduate from central the principal of the school told me at one point along the way that I
didn't have to come to the ceremony and they would mail me my diploma and I thought listen I didn't go through all this to pass up the the ceremony maybe the the world thought that after Little Rock everything is gonna be fixed and one of the important pieces I I'm sure I don't need to remind anyone that the history of slavery in this country makes it very difficult to overcome a lot of issues on race we're a long way from being perfect but we certainly are not what we were when I started out I believe
that our participation at Central is one of those many steps that's gone to change this country for the better
