Ernie Green reflects on the past and urges kids today to
'dream big'

In March, students at the Urban Assembly Academy for History and Citizenship studied Ernie Green and the Little Rock Nine. They learned that 50 years ago, Green and his courageous fellow students integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., despite strong opposition from a governor who sent out the state’s National Guard to stop them. The Bronx, N.Y., ninth- and 10th-graders also saw videos showing the nine black kids being taunted as they entered the all-white school, and read about how they continued to be harassed throughout the school year.

In April, Green showed up at the Bronx high school to speak to students there. He was greeted by a group of young men who called him their hero and clung to his every word.

“I feel blessed to have a history maker like Mr. Green come to our school,” said Ravon Morehand, vice president of the school’s student government association. “We were able to hear directly from someone who went through the experience we’ve be learning about, which is even better than reading about it.”

Green, who was a senior when he enrolled at Central in 1957 and became the first black to graduate from the school, shared with the students both his memories of integrating Central and his desire to see today’s students build on the foundation laid by those who fought for civil rights in the ’60s.

He told the students about riding past Central en route to Horace Mann High School (the all-black high school he first attended), remembering that he saw a bigger building that he just knew had “more books and better science labs.”

He was offered an opportunity to transfer to Central—and was spurred on by the reaction of segregationists. “I felt that if so many people were trying to stop me from attending the school, there must be something at Central that I needed to have,” Green recalled.

The Little Rock Nine had no idea what impact they would have on American society 50 years later, but Green said he and the other students who integrated Central “knew we wanted to change things for ourselves and our families.”

He urged the students at Urban Assembly “to dream big, to think big.”

“The challenge to you is not what Ernie Green did 50 years ago; the challenge is for you to build on that. The next senator from New York may be in this room. One of you might become president or find a cure for cancer.”

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The NAACP’s Daisy Bates Education Summit in May will honor the 50th anniversary of the Little Rock Nine. For details, visit www.naacp.com .