Panelists at non-violence forum stress power of youth to change Youngstown

YOUNGSTOWN

More young people need to serve as peacemakers in their lives and schools, one of the “Little Rock Nine” told a crowd of mostly youngsters at Choffin Career and Technical Center Tuesday night.

Minnijean Brown-Trickey, one of nine black students to integrate the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., in September 1957, paid a heavy price for her actions, she told the crowd of about 80.

It was the “ultimate bullying story,” she said, recounting her daily torment until she was expelled in February 1958. Adding to her suffering was inaction by those in the school who failed to reach out to her, she said.

Tuesday’s two-hour panel discussion titled “Violence in Our Community: What do we do?” was organized by the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence program and Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past in the wake of the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo.

Read more about tonight's event in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.