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Veteran of Little Rock integration recalls hate
By Denise Dick
Civil-rights pioneer shares horrors with Youngstown students
By DENISE DICK
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Minnijean Brown-Trickey endured death threats, had dog feces and garbage thrown at her and was kicked down the steps — all because she was a black girl attending a white school.
Brown-Trickey, 69, was one of the Little Rock Nine, nine black students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas in 1957.
“It strengthened my resolve,” she said. She thought: “You don’t want me; then I’m coming.”
The experience also contributed to making Brown-Trickey, who now lives in Canada, an advocate of nonviolence.
Brown-Trickey spoke Thursday to students from Youngstown Early College and Youngstown State University in preparation for Nonviolence Week, to be marked next week in Youngstown city schools.
The students involved in organizing the week are participants in Sojourn to the Past, a trip this spring aimed at immersing students in a study of the civil-rights era.
The Little Rock Nine students couldn’t use their lockers because other students urinated in them, she said. And every night, the school’s lockers were checked for bombs.
People called the homes of the students, threatening to kill the families and burn their houses down.
It wasn’t all of the 2,000 white students who perpetrated the violence and threats, she said. The majority just did nothing.
“There were about 20 white kids who were nice, who risked their lives to talk to us and received the same treatment that we did,” Brown-Trickey said.
Troy Vonne, 14, a student at Youngstown Early College, said he learned from his grandparents about the Little Rock Nine.
“And there’s information on the Internet about it, but it’s not like hearing about it from someone who was actually there,” Vonne said.
Rachel Schmidt, 15, also a YEC student, said Brown-Trickey’s talk was the first she learned about the nine students and what they endured. She said the information surprised her.
Growing up, Brown-Trickey said she was unaware of institutional racism.
“I was beautiful. I was smart. I had such a good personality. I could sing. I thought, how could anyone not like me?” Brown-Trickey said.
She recited the pledge and sang patriotic songs like other students and believed what she was taught about the enemy was the Soviet Union.
“I believed in liberty and justice for all and thought I was part of the ‘all,’” the speaker said.
But as their time at the school went on, they received mail from people from all over the world. It became a responsibility, she said.
When asked about the frequent use of the N-word as a term of affection, Brown-Trickey said those who use it don’t know its history. If they did, they likely wouldn’t use it, she said.
Vonne, the YEC student, acknowledged that he sometimes uses the word. After hearing about its negative history, though, and how people from Brown-Trickey’s era perceive it, he said he’ll think twice about it.