Little Rock Girl 1957: How a Photograph Changed the Fight for Integration
by Shelley Tougas
Compass Point Books
From the publisher: Nine African American students made history when they defied a governor
and integrated an Arkansas high school in 1957. It was the photo of one
of the nine trying to enter the school a young girl being taunted,
harassed and threatened by an angry mob that grabbed the worlds
attention and kept its disapproving gaze on Little Rock, Arkansas. In
defiance of a federal court order, Governor Orval Faubus called in the
National Guard to prevent the students from entering all white Central
High School. The plan had been for the students to meet and go to school
as a group on September 4, 1957. But one student, Elizabeth Eckford,
didnt hear of the plan and tried to enter the school alone. A chilling
photo by newspaper photographer Will Counts captured the sneering
expression of a girl in the mob and made history. Years later Counts
snapped another photo, this one of the same two girls, now grownup,
reconciling in front of Central High School.
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