On September 5th, 1957, a newspaper in London, The Telegraph, wrote, “Hazel Bryan, looked livid, her face poisoned with hate… Hazel shouted… ‘Go back to A-’. Click. ‘-frica!’ Will Counts, a photographer for the Arkansas Democrat, had his picture,” (Telegraph). The day before was a normal day for most people around the country, but a very important one for those in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was the day that the local high school, Central High, would be integrated. This was due to a recent court case, Brown v. Board of Education, which decided that segregated schools were unconstitutional and required all schools to be integrated. Nine black students, who would come to be known as the Little Rock Nine, were selected to do this, due to the Blossom …show more content…
To begin, when the Little Rock Nine went to Central for the first time, there was a huge mob of segregationists protesting the integration, and Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine, ended up in the middle of the mob. Will Counts, a photographer, captured an image of Elizabeth walking through the mob being heckled by Hazel Bryan. (right). The day after Elizabeth faced the mob, “Elizabeth and Hazel landed on millions of doorsteps,” (Telegraph). The photograph was on newspapers all over. It was spread around the world; it showed people how hard it actually was for the black community. This significant photograph caused many integrationists to be outraged and take pity on her. Another way the press illuminated these events was through radio. Carlotta Walls LaNier, another of the Little Rock Nine, remembered, “News of the mob had been on the radio all morning...Relatives had been calling all day, and their message was unified: Get Carlotta out of that school!” (LaNier 90). This showed the country how vicious many of the segregationists were. It caused many black citizens and integrationists to feel scared; a lot of them stopped standing up as much for black citizens. On the contrary, this caused the segregationists to feel empowered and want to continue supporting segregation and ???. Carlotta also remembers the day after they tried to integrate Central and Elizabeth was in the mob, “...the New York Times would run this account of the moment when a lone white woman-Grace Lorch… came to Elizabeth’s aid,” (LaNier 72). This showed that not all whites are segregationists and many actually care about the black community. This could have caused the integrationists to feel empowered, and make the segregationists feel weakened. The fact that this story was in the New York Times, halfway across the country showed how fast it was