Fifty-one years ago, if you were black and lived in the South, you might have walked three or four miles to school in 100-degree heat. If you stopped to drink from a “whites only” water fountain, you might have been arrested.
If you were ever hurt and had to go to a hospital, you could only go to a “whites only” hospital. It was against the law to step foot into a “whites only” hospital if you were Black!
The law stated that black and white
facilities could be separate as long as they were equal. This became
justification for excluding blacks from better “white” facilities.
This concept of “separate but equal” applied to schools as well. It didn’t take long, however, to determine that schools were not equal – and groups began to push for integration. Two opposing sides formed. Those who demanded school integration were poised to march forward. Those bitterly opposed were ready to block them in the streets. Caught in the middle were nine black teenagers – nine frightened but hopeful warriors. Would they survive the clash? What can we learn from them?