Little Rock Nine: from the portfolio, I Am A Man
Artist: Ernest C. Withers (American, 1922 - 2007)
Publisher: Panopticon Press, Tony Decaneas, Waltham, MA
Date: photographs: 1956-1968; portfolio: 1994
Dimensions:
sheet: 15 15/16 x 18 7/8 in. (40.5 x 47.9 cm)
image: 14 15/16 x 18 1/4 in. (37.9 x 46.4 cm)
Sheet, according to WAC form: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Mrs. George W. Stevens Fund
Object number: 2003.46E
Label Text:Ernest C. Withers
American, 1922–2007
“Little Rock Nine”
The “Little Rock Nine’s” first day of school, Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957
(l to r): Carlotta Walls, Melba Pattillo, Elizabeth Eckford, and Minnie Jean Brown
“The first day I was able to enter Central High School, what I felt inside was terrible, wrenching, awful fear. On the car radio I could hear that there was a mob…. So we entered the side of the building, very, very fast. Even as we entered there were people running after us, people tripping other people…. There has never been in my life any stark terror or any fear akin to that.”
--Melba Pattillo Beals, one of the Little Rock Nine
In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Brown v. Board of Education that segregated schools are “inherently unequal” and ordered the desegregation of public schools. Three years later, nine black children in Little Rock, Arkansas, attempted to enroll in Central High School. They were put off initially by legal maneuvers by the governor and by angry mobs. President Dwight D. Eisenhower eventually sent in 1,000 troops to ensure the safe entry of the Little Rock Nine, and the students bravely returned to integrate the school.
American, 1922–2007
“Little Rock Nine”
The “Little Rock Nine’s” first day of school, Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957
(l to r): Carlotta Walls, Melba Pattillo, Elizabeth Eckford, and Minnie Jean Brown
“The first day I was able to enter Central High School, what I felt inside was terrible, wrenching, awful fear. On the car radio I could hear that there was a mob…. So we entered the side of the building, very, very fast. Even as we entered there were people running after us, people tripping other people…. There has never been in my life any stark terror or any fear akin to that.”
--Melba Pattillo Beals, one of the Little Rock Nine
In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Brown v. Board of Education that segregated schools are “inherently unequal” and ordered the desegregation of public schools. Three years later, nine black children in Little Rock, Arkansas, attempted to enroll in Central High School. They were put off initially by legal maneuvers by the governor and by angry mobs. President Dwight D. Eisenhower eventually sent in 1,000 troops to ensure the safe entry of the Little Rock Nine, and the students bravely returned to integrate the school.
DescriptionPortfolio with letterpress text and ten gelatin silver prints.
Not on view