1. Elizabeth Ann Eckford was born on October 4,1941 and is an American civil rights activist and one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African American students who, in 1957, were the first black students ever to attend classes at the previously all-white Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Elizabeth Eckford only spent one year at Little Rock Central High where she and the other black students were tormented throughout.
Fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Eckford tried to enter the school, while soldiers of the National Guard, under orders from Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, stepped in her way to prevent her from entering.
Once Elizabeth Eckford got to the bus stop, she couldn't stop crying.
Elizabeth Eckford's family was not informed of the meeting and didn't know that the school board asked the parents to accompany her.
Also, Elizabeth Eckford rode a public bus alone to the segregated school.
That day, Elizabeth Eckford wore a starched black-and-white dress, and she covered her face under black sunglasses.
Elizabeth Eckford walked to a bus bench at the end of the block.
Eisenhower summoned Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas to intervene and asked for the withdrawal of all troops from the high school after Elizabeth Eckford's experience attempting to enter the school the first time.
All of the city's high schools were closed the following year, so Elizabeth Eckford did not graduate from Central High School.
Elizabeth Eckford was accepted by Knox College in Illinois, but chose to return to Little Rock to be near her family.
Elizabeth Eckford later attended Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, where she earned a BA in history.
In 2018, Elizabeth Eckford was awarded an honorary doctorate from Knox College.
Elizabeth Eckford served in the United States Army for five years, first as a pay clerk, and then as an information specialist.
Elizabeth Eckford wrote for the Fort McClellan and the Fort Benjamin Harrison newspapers.
Elizabeth Eckford wanted me to be less uncomfortable so that she wouldn't feel responsible.
When Elizabeth Eckford pointed his rifle towards them, the police officers shot him.
Elizabeth Eckford's mother feared that his death was "suicide by police".
In 2018,60 years after leaving Little Rock Central High, Elizabeth Eckford told her story in her first autobiography, The Worst First Day: Bullied While Desegregating Little Rock Central High.
Grace was 15 years old when she worked on the project, the same age Elizabeth Eckford was when she desegregated Central High.
Elizabeth Eckford traveled to New Zealand in 2019 to teach American civil rights history to more than 4,000 students with Dr Stanley at the request of high school teacher Roydon Agent, author of Public Image, Private Shame.
On November 19,2022, Elizabeth Eckford spoke at the keel-laying ceremony of the attack submarine USS Arkansas at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia, after she and Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls LaNier and Thelma Mothershed-Wair etched their initials onto metal plates that were then welded onto the keel.