Former student part of historical desegregation case to speak at WSU

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Fairborn —

A civil rights leader who was one of nine students in 1957 to integrate an all-white Arkansas high school will appear Thursday at Wright State University.

Minnijean Brown Trickey, one of the Little Rock Nine, will speak at noon in the Student Union. The free event, hosted by the university’s Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center, is open to the public.

“When we look at uncommon heroes, I think she is definitely one,” said Bryce Hudson, the center’s assistant director and relative of Brown Trickey. “When you talk about human rights, you talk about respect for life and respecting all. During that critical time period the Little Rock Nine, Dr. King, all these uncommon unsung heroes, set the platform for which diversity and inclusion stand on today.”

In 1957, a federal court ordered Central High School officials to comply with the Supreme Court’s 1954-55 Brown vs. Board of Education decision that ended public school segregation. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus defied the court’s orders at first, but eventually agreed to use the National Guard to protect Brown Trickey and eight other black students as they entered Central High School, accordng to the U.S. Department of the Interior.

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