The Little Rock Nine and Ernest Green

Today I got on the treadmill to use some of my time off to get in shape. My treadmill has a tv on it and that not only makes exercise more interesting, but also means I should be a lot thinner than I am. Regardless, I found a station that had a Martin Luther King Day inspired message. The show documented examples of non-violent protests, the Greensboro Sit-ins, and the bus boycotts that took place in the 1960s in our very own United States.

Though I always appreciate these types of programs, I was especially touched by the Little Rock Nine discussion - the nine African-American students that struggled for integration into Little Rock Central high school in 1957 amongst riots and ultimately police intervention.

One of the nine, Ernest Green, was the first black to graduate from the Little Rock Central High School. No one clapped when he walked across the stage, but he was proud that he had accomplished his goal despite the challenges.

I first heard about the Ernest Green story back in college when I student taught 7th graders in a junior high school in Orem, Utah. That semester we talked about racism, slavery and other similar issues of human rights. It was, after all, a history class. I showed the students the movie - The Ernest Green Story - and we probably had one of the best classroom experiences of that entire semester. Most of them had no idea how segregation and racism actually played out in day-to-day life. They were appalled and I was grateful for the impression this movie left on them. Many normally disrupted students cried and others seemed to be overcome with gratitude that they had never been treated that way and no one they knew was being treated that way in our day and time.

I only hope that we continue to remember these types of moments in history. They must be remembered so as not to repeat them. I saw a movie in December called The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and it was a movie of similar impact, but was focused on the Nazi concentration camps. It showed the very subtle changes that took place among the people. Most interesting was the scene were the tutor tried to ingrain the idea of a superior race into the children he was teaching. It was all so subtle, but it showed how influential education and unique circumstances seemed to play tricks on the mind. Most of us now look at that time of horror with...horror.

The real challenge then is to ensure that we don't make similar mistakes through subtle acceptance of how we treat others or what we accept as "ok" in our respective cultures. Historically, it appears that normal and good people can become not so good if swept into small thinking, hope from the wrong source, and a willingness to follow the crowd without much thought where the crowd is going. There are still many prejudices and horrible events taking place in the world which means that large groups of human beings do still fall prey to the not so good approach and it would be best to always be on our guard.

I will admit to having tears in my eyes through much of the show today. There were so many people that were grounded, followed what was right and were willing to give their lives for their people, their freedom, their rights, and their posterity.

Could I do that? I do not know and yet I know I can start with small things. Practice, after all, prepares you for the real deal whatever the real deal is for each of us.

So, kudos for all those in history that have had significant influence on a friend, a family, a community, a church group, a school, a nation or a world. I think this covers us all, but hopefully each of us can widen our circle a little bit more. As an old children's song from church states:

"I want to be kind to everyone, for that is right you see. But, I say to myself, remember this...kindness begins with me."


Photo: Ernest Green today - a successful business man in the Washington, DC area. When I listened to him speak of his experiences today I realized that he reminds me of Doctor Benjamin Carson, a world famous brain surgeon at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Carson is another amazing person that would be worth finding out a little more about because of his commitment to God, family and excellence.





More info on The Ernest Green Story

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ernest_Green_Story