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[Ernest Green] The local newspaper,
the <i>Arkansas Gazette</i>, at that time

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indicated that the <i>Brown</i>
decision was gonna change

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the face of the South forever.

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I remember those words and
I thought to myself, "Good,

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'cause I think the face of
the South ought to change."

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I will not force my people to integrate

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against their will.

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[Green] The governor of the state,
Orval Faubus,

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decided that he was gonna use Central

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as his point of resistance.

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None of us of the Nine anticipated
that the resistance would

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be as strong as it was.

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The night before we were to go to school,

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the Governor called out the
Arkansas National Guard,

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unbeknownst to us.

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And when we appeared at
Central the first day,

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the National Guard was
there to bar our entrance

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and let white students go into the school.

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What it was like,

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it was rejection that I had
never experienced like that.

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It seemed to me that if
they were going to all

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of this trouble to keep me out,

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there was something bigger
than my simply going to class.

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Only when we got home
from school that day

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did we realize what an
ordeal, personal ordeal,

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Elizabeth had gone through, and
that she certainly faced more

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of the mob directly.

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I always applaud the fact
that she was able to keep

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both her composure and try to figure out

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how to get out of that.

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We started school on
the 25th of September.

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[Reporter] President
Eisenhower sends 500 troops

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of the 101st Airborne Division
of the United States Army.

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[Green] It was a terrific feeling that
President of the United States

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would send troops to escort us
into school.

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I didn't know what was
gonna happen after that.

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It was like going to war every day.

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You had students who tried
to use as much verbiage

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as they could to intimidate us.

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We had threats and comments that,

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you know, we would be killed.

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For all of us, we decided
that this was a year

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that we were gonna support each other.

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We were gonna try to
do as well as we could

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in academic work.

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Some were a lot smarter than
me, but I also was determined

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that this year I was gonna
graduate from Central.

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The principal of the
school told me at one point

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along the way that I didn't
have to come to the ceremony

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and they would mail me my diploma.

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And I thought, "Listen,

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I didn't go through all of
this to pass up the ceremony."

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Maybe the world thought
that, after Little Rock,

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everything is gonna be fixed.

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And one of the important pieces, I'm sure,

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I don't need to remind
anyone, that the history

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of slavery in this country,
it makes it very difficult

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to overcome a lot of issues on race.

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We're a long way from being perfect,

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but we certainly are not what
we were when I started out.

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I believe that our
participation at Central is one

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of those many steps that's
gone to change this country

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for the better.