Big brave nine
Little Rock Nine
Norma Jean Carter
It was an historic day on May 17 1954, when the decision declared all law establishing segregated schools to become unconstitutional. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People also known as the NAACP attempted to enrol black students to all-white school in the school year of 1957. In my hometown, Little Rock, the capital city of Arkansas did the school board unanimously approved nine children to register to the Little Rock school. Those nine kids were all black and one of them is my son, Antwone Carter Jr.
I woke up on a beautiful Monday morning on September 1957. The butterflies in my stomach were out of control. I had so many mixed feelings about my son going to school that day. It was the very first time when black children went to an all-white school. I had my doubts whether I should let him go to school, but Shawn was so excited. I dont think he realised that the parents of the white children and the people of the Little Rock city were not quite happy about this arrangement.
On that morning, me and the other parents of the eight black children got together and decided to take the bus with the kids and face the music. The Arkansas National guards had already submitted the white students when we came. In front of the school was a mob of angry and crazy white people waiting for us to arrive. I knew that they were not happy, but this insanity blew my mind. I had never seen anything as crazy as this. The mob was out of control. I was so scared that my son would get hurt, people were so aggressive. They were throwing glass bottles in our direction and one of the bottles hit Mr. Calvins head and it bled so much. We all started to run but couldn´t get very far. The mob had stopped us. I did not know what to do. People started to spit on us, kick us and punch us in the face. We did not get into the school because of the mob and the day after we were escorted by the troops to the back...