The Little Rock Nine

The highlight of our Civil Rights Tour for me was visiting Central High in Little Rock. They have a great visitor's center catty-cornered across the street from campus. The little museum there does an excellent job of telling the story of the Little Rock Nine with all kinds of pictures, video, audio, etc. The most moving thing to me was a quote from Elizabeth Eckford. She is the black girl in the famous picture taken the first day the Little Rock Nine had planned to try to attend classes. Here's the quote: "I tried to see a friendly face somewhere in the mob -- somebody who maybe would help. I looked into the face of an old woman, but when I looked at her again, she spat on me." That quote choked me up. Imagine feeling so vulnerable -- you are only 16 and a mob of strangers is screaming terrible things at you, even threatening your life. You are just looking for one sympatheic face -- and when you finally think you have found one -- that person spits on you. I know people do much worse things to each other, including killing each other, but for some reason that story of a grown woman spitting on a 16-year-old girl broke my heart more than all the violent images.