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Fighting for social justice

The Little Rock Nine

On June 12, 1958, our union presented the Little Rock Nine with the Local 6 Better Race Relations award at HTC headquarters. In the days following the ceremony, our members introduced the students to various aspects of New York City, and our city embraced them.

A few pivotal moments enter history marked with an intensity and a vividness passing years do not diminish. One such event was the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

In 1954, the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education mandated the integration of racially segregated schools. Three years later, Central High School remained rigidly segregated. On September 4, 1957, however, nine black students were to attend classes there for the first time.

The world watched. Our members watched, too. Our union already had a record of fighting for equal rights, and many members knew prejudice and the pain and damage it inflicted firsthand. They undoubtedly felt a special link to the brave students prepared to put themselves at risk. One of them, Elizabeth Eckford, was the niece of Scotty Eckford, the recording secretary of Local 6.

Governor Orval Faubus had ordered the soldiers of the Arkansas National Guard mobilized. On the morning of September 4, soldiers with bayonets in their guns turned the nine black students away from the public high school it was their right to attend. Their white classmates were allowed to pass through the barricades and into the school.

Elizabeth Eckford

News stories, television coverage, and photographs memorializing the appalling events of that day flashed around the world. No images were more striking, or more heartbreaking, than those of 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford.

She had arrived first, and alone. Angry swarms of white people confronted her, jeering, chanting, and shouting epithets. Three times she tried to enter the school. Each time soldiers barred her from entering, and, the third time, directed her away.

She walked on, toward a bus stop, seeking a bus to take her to safety. A photograph-one of the most enduring images of the civil rights movement in the United States-shows her walking away from the school. She is starkly and completely alone, and easily within striking distance of those at the front of the large and frightening crowd of white people following her.

It is impossible to look at this searing photograph without trying to comprehend what young Elizabeth Eckford might have been thinking and feeling at that time. It is painful to contemplate how frightened she must have been and how alone and vulnerable she must have felt.

To their credit, many of our members at that time did try to think about what she and the eight other students-Minnijean Brown, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Terrance Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls-not only thought and felt that day but also throughout that school year which followed. They respected the courage and dignity the students had displayed, worried about the wrenching experiences they had endured, recognized the strength it must have taken each one of them simply to go off to each day of school, not knowing what price they might have to pay for doing it.

In so thinking, our members nonetheless kept in mind that these remarkable young men and women were still only teenagers despite the maturity they consistently displayed to the world watching them. And in their touching determination to obtain a good education, they daily sacrificed the pleasures, adventures, and simple joy those special years should bring.

Our members set about to do what they could to see that this brave group was recognized and appropriately honored for so greatly advancing the struggle for equal rights for all in our country. They also determined to do their best to provide the group with a collection of experiences that would bring smiles to those young faces and some fun and laughter into their lives.

With these goals in mind, our members brought their considerable talents for planning and organizing to bear and emerged with a plan they turned into reality. They considered the enormity of what the Nine had risked and what they had accomplished. 

The decision came rapidly and readily. Our union would honor each by jointly awarding them its Better Race Relations Award. It would, at its expense, bring the entire group to New York City, where the award would be presented to them. Following the ceremony, our union would give them a taste of New York City so they could accumulate a storehouse of positive experiences and happy memories to take away.

On June 12, 1958, the awards ceremony took place in the Gertrude Lane Auditorium at the union. The impressive ceremony unfolded before an enthusiastic overflow audience of proud members, as well as noted speakers and guests, including Roy Wilkens, the executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and New York Governor Averell Harriman. Large numbers of reporters and photographers were present to record the event. United States Senator Jacob K. Javits, detained by an evening session of the Senate, sent a congratulatory telegram to the students which was read at the gathering.

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Elizabeth Eckford and Ernest Green, who became the first black student to graduate from Central High School, spoke on behalf of their group. With the presentation of the award to them in 1958, the students became the fifth recipients of the Local 6 Better Race Relations Award. The magnitude of their collective accomplishment was highlighted by the fact that the previous year's recipient had been the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Reading accounts of this moving event makes one wistful at not having been in attendance. Our members took the young people to their hearts; a member who was present later wrote, "The heroism of the students won a profound response. It showed in every face they met, and charged the air with deep tenderness and emotion."

In the days following the ceremony, our members introduced the students to various aspects of New York City, and our city embraced them. Mayor Robert F. Wagner rearranged his schedule so he could personally welcome them to City Hall and shake their hands. United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskhold and Under Secretary General (and Nobel Peace Prize winner) Ralph Bunche abandoned their pressing schedules to greet and speak personally with the students, who then enjoyed a private lunch with various UN officials and a special tour of the impressive United Nations headquarters.

Little Rock Nine Scan 64

Just plain fun was also part of the program our union prepared for the students. They were taken on a trip to view the Statue of Liberty. They visited backstage with Lena Horne and Ricardo Montalban, the stars of the hit Broadway musical "Jamaica", and then went to their seats to view the performance. They sampled New York food, including at Lindy's, the famous delicatessen and restaurant which was a magnet for show people and other celebrities of the time. And, of course, there was a very lively day at Coney Island, where the students seemed thoroughly to enjoy trying out famous rides like the Cyclone, the parachute jump, the merry-go-round, and the dodg'ems, to name just a few they sampled.

Activities that made the students smile and laugh, warm embraces from our members, black and white alike-the hope was that the New York respite our union provided would be an antidote for some of the profoundly venomous racism every one of the Nine had had to endure beginning September 4, 1957, the day that changed their lives forever.

On that day, and in the inhumanly difficult weeks, months, and years that followed, every one of the students who came to be known as the Little Rock Nine displayed unimaginable courage, dignity, and determination. Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Terrance Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls earned and richly deserve their places of honor in the history of this country.

Minnijean Brown

Minnijean Brown

She is the only one of the nine students who began the term at Central High School who was not permitted to finish the school year. Minnijean, 16, mature beyond her years, endured the daily insults until they became unbearable and finally spoke back to a white student. Suspended, Minnijean accepted a scholarship at the New Lincoln School in New York City. Here, she could engage in the after school activities with her classmates (she had tried out for the Christmas chorus program at Central, been accepted, and at the last moment was told that perhaps it would be better if she didn't participate). Minnijean would like to return to school in Little Rock, despite her acceptance here in New York. She feels a kinship and obligation to the other students she started the year with.

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Elizabeth Eckford

Elizabeth Eckford

Shy and quiet, Elizabeth appeared in the most publicized picture of the fight in Little Rock. It was the unforgettable sight of a small young girl surrounded by hostile soldiers and looks of hatred of the mob that had gathered. She had gone to the school alone that first day, not knowing that the other students were going as a group. Her family, unlike the others, had no telephone. Elizabeth's decision to attend Central was her own, and was one that her mother hoped she wouldn't go through with. She sews well and designs her own clothes. She loves rock n' roll music, and wishes she could brush up on her French. Still only 16, she is in her manner and her interests like any other teenager.

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Ernest Green

Only 16, he was the first African-American graduate of Central High School. He dismisses the fact that he graduated so young by indicating that his mother was a school teacher and so he learned his school work a bit younger than most. He handles himself with sureness and is even able to talk of the events in Little Rock with good nature. His grades, despite the pressures, were excellent, and his interests varied. Never far from his camera while in New York, he took almost as many pictures of other people as the photographers took of him. Ernest was the natural leader of the group of students, done with a poise his sister says that he has had since a small child. He enters Michigan State University this fall on a scholarship.

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Thelma Mothershed

The quietest of the group, Thelma is also the smallest. A mere slip of a youngster, 16 years old, she had had long experience in learning patience. While in elementary school she suffered an attack of rheumatic fever that kept her out for three years. At that, she is only a year behind in her studies. Thelma has always wanted to be a schoolteacher; ever since the first day she ever attended one. Nothing that happened at Central High School this past term has shaken that ambition. Her pastimes are quiet ones, necessitated by her health (she would love to be able to dance), and include baking cookies, crocheting, reading or going to the movies.

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Melba Patillo

She is a determined girl who bubbles with enthusiasm. She shrugs off the behavior of some of her fellow students in Central High School with something that is akin to pity. Always ready for anything that promises to be fun, she has a flair for the dramatic. She sings, dances and plays the piano. Two songs she composed herself have been copyrighted. Most of all she would like to be a professional entertainer. The insults, the anonymous telephone calls, she and her family have endured with patience. She knows that it is just a small group within the school that has worked hard to make it difficult.

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Gloria Ray

Sixteen years old, with a twinkle in her eye that is not to be underestimated, she registered for Central High School over the opposition of her parents. Her explanation for doing it was that she had driven down to register at Horace Mann (the African-American high school), and had somehow gotten mixed up in traffic. It was not an easy year, and yet Gloria felt sorry for a white girl who, having befriended her, began receiving the same treatment as the young African-American students. Her best subject is math and she would like to continue her studies in one of the scientific fields.

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Terrance Roberts

Terrance Roberts

An excellent student, ranked scholastically highest of the group of nine who entered Central High School, he seems to have suffered the worst abuse from some of his fellow students. Inside the school, before the arrival of federal troops, he had been followed in the halls, pushed, kicked and had his books knocked from his arms. Once he almost decided to quit, but felt that he couldn't desert the other eight students he had started out with. Yet Terrance continues with his life as it was. He reads as much as ever, and plays football, baseball and basketball after school. He is the kind of boy who though extremely sensitive managed the school year with poise and finished with grades far above average.

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Jefferson Thomas

"Never fight when you can run your way out of it". This was Jeff's attitude about making it with all possible speed to the principal's office when 20 white boys in Central appeared to be ganging up on him. He's just the boy to do it. Track is his best sport. Jeff has won medals for the 880 and 440 relay teams. At first meeting, he impresses a person as a quiet boy and very serious. But he has a grin that lights up his face and is full of merriment. The previous year he had won an award in his school as the most outstanding boy of the year. He was also president of the student council. College still seems a long way ahead, but he's determined to get there.

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Carlotta Walls

Carlotta Walls

Fifteen-year-old Carlotta was the baby of the group attending Central high School. A tall, thin youngster, inclined to be a bit of a tomboy, she still seems not to have grown accustomed to the length of her arms or legs. Sitting still in one place for more than a few minutes at a time is difficult for her. It's a boundless energy and a sense of warmth that has her wanting to be everyplace at once so that she won't miss anything. Carlotta had always wanted to go to Central as soon as she knew what integration meant. She wants a good education and a chance to be treated just like anybody else.

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In August 1958, a special issue of the union's magazine, Hotel and Club Voice, focused on our union's unwavering commitment to the struggle for equal rights. That issue, in sections reprinted here, highlighted those nine young women and men who contributed so greatly to the advancement of that struggle. Our union was among the first entities to recognize the greatness of their contributions, and, more than fifty years later, their actions continue to inspire us.

 

The Local 6 Civil Rights Award for 1958

HOTEL AND CLUB VOICE
August, 1958

Her fight in Little Rock adds luster to Liberty's torch

A Governor, a Mayor, a Senator, national and local labor leaders and notables from all walks of life joined Local 6 on June 12 in honoring nine Little Rock high school students for having done the most to advance the cause of civil and equal rights in the past year.

The annual Local 6 Better Race Relations Award was presented to these nine for what Pres. Carl Schutt termed "their dignity and unfailing courage during the tense school year just ended." Inscribed forever among America's heroes and heroines in the fight for full democracy are the names of Local 6's 1958 Award winners: Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Terrance Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, Carlotta Walls.

While foes of unsegregated schools are even now busy at work in an effort to evade the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court and violate Article XIV of the U.S. Constitution, a union-Local 6-in honoring these nine, was focusing national attention on the need to end the undemocratic blight of discrimination in our land.

It is 20 years since Local 6 was founded. In all that time, it has unrelentingly opposed discrimination in all its forms. The union ended the days when managements played African-American and minority groups against white workers to keep them divided, unorganized and exploited.

That history of 20 years...and what remains to be done... the July issue of THE VOICE was omitted to highlight and review in this enlarged special August issue. For this ambitious project, the editorial board of THE VOICE wishes to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of the editors of HOTEL VOICE, the weekly newspaper of the Hotel Trades Council, and the Council's president Jay Rubin. Inspired by the example of the Little Rock Nine, it is our hope this special issue will deepen the understanding and determination to completely wipe out discrimination in our industry, city, state and nation.

Little Rock and our own backyard

Great feats of heroism are required in many areas of our country to secure simple and elementary democratic rights. Over 6,000 of our members voted to honor such heroism earlier this year when they selected the nine Little Rock students as winners of the annual Local 6 Better Race Relations Award.

Our deepest admiration goes out to those in the South who literally take their lives in their hands when they attempt to join or organize a union; to obtain unsegregated and equal educational opportunities-or dare to attempt to register to vote. Admiration for such courage is merited. But we should also be deeply alarmed at this state of affairs.

So long as southern employers feel free to use white supremacy to divide workers and prevent union organization, just so long will organized workers face the double threat of a competitive non-union, low wage area and their political representatives in Congress to block or compel concessions on all social and labor legislation that is most vital to the interests of working people.

Thelma Carpenter, famous Broadway singing star, opened the Awards meeting with the national anthem and entertained with songs during the evening.

We in labor must take a sharp critical look at ourselves. We must ask ourselves why, as the largest organized force in the country devoted to political democracy and economic advancement, we haven't been able to change this basically undemocratic situation.

It is correctly said that if all had the right to vote in the South, that one fact would change the whole backward and reactionary character of that area-and its political representatives. In New York we have but to take a walk and sign our name to register. If enough of us did in just a few districts, the 27,000 members of Local 6 could well be the decisive influence as to what kind of candidates would be nominated and elected.

Candidates are needed today who will combat the unholy combination of labor-baiters, white supremacists and smug and cynical politicians that run rough-shod over the rights of labor, the African-American people and minority groups-or do little or nothing to halt them.

We in Local 6 are taking special measures this year to make sure our members register their influence as effectively at the polls as we do in the shops. While we admire and hail the courage of the Little Rock Nine, let us make sure that in our own backyard we exercise our precious right to vote-and put candidates in office who will enact firm democratic guarantees that will end the need for exceptional courage and self-sacrifice to exercise elementary democratic rights.

For heroism under fire in the fight for equal rights

Local 6 annual Better Relations Award to nine Little Rock high school students climaxes 20 years of union's struggle for equal rights for all.

Turned full on Local 6 this past June 12, the eyes of the American nation -television cameras, swarming and shouting press photographers, reporters for the great newspapers and press associations - witnessed a tremendous outburst of enthusiasm and dedication on behalf of equal rights for all. On that day Local 6 emerged on the national scene, taking its full and proper place on the stage of history culminating 20 years of struggle for civil rights, equal opportunity, non-segregated housing, schools and jobs.

On the stage of Gertrude Lane Auditorium sat the nine African-American students of Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas, flown to New York by Local 6 to receive the union's annual Better Race Relations Award. Around them sat the general officers of the local, the members of the Hotel Trades Council executive hoard, dignitaries of public life, labor leaders, officials of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"I am here," New York's Governor Averell Harriman told members of the Local 6 Assembly and Shop delegates, who jammed the auditorium, "to join in paying tribute to these nine children whom we have watched during the past nine months with a great deal of concern, admiration and hope."

City's Welcome

New York City opened its heart to the courageous students from Little Rock and Mayor Robert F. Wagner made it official when he cancelled previous out-of-town commitments to personally welcome them at City Hall.

Friday morning, June 13, it was made official what was already a fact-that the Little Rock Nine were among the most welcome guests New York City had ever welcomed. Though Mayor Robert F. Wagner had a long-standing previous engagement out of the city at the time the Little Rock Nine were due to arrive, he showed all New York's understanding and appreciation of their bitter year by canceling the engagement and personally welcoming them at City Hall.

Paying high tribute to Local 6 for presenting its annual race relations award to the nine, the Mayor told the young students he was "very proud" to welcome them. The Mayor pointed out that though New York City stands in the forefront of the battle for civil rights, there remains much to be done in combating discrimination.

"Everybody here will take you to their hearts," the Mayor said, "and you will be one in spirit with us in our continuing fight to do away with the last vestiges of discrimination."

Mrs. Daisy Bates, Little Rock NAACP president, in turn, told the Mayor that after eight months of "very unkind treatment, I think the children needed just the kind of reception they received in the city."

As for Minnijean Brown, who had been expelled from Little Rock's Central High for "answering back" to harsh treatment by white students, Mrs. Bates said the welcome and time spent in a New York school had restored Minnijean's faith in democracy. General Organizer Betty Bentz responded on behalf of the union to Mayor Wagner's greetings.

Remarks from the Local 6 Better Relations Award

Carl Schutt

Local 6 President

It is because too many people in high places are deliberating rather than working to speed the full implementation of the Supreme Court's decision that some of the finest persons in our country-such as our guests tonight from Little Rock-are compelled to demonstrate almost superhuman courage to secure their constitutional right of an opportunity to an equal education, without discrimination.

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Averell Harriman

Governor of New York

One day, history will point to the courage shown by the African-American children of Little Rock in the face of both official and mob action in keeping them out of school. They are the real heroes. And they will occupy a niche in the annals of the nation.

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Jay Rubin

HTC President

The reason that I'm so proud is because I want not only you, but also the heroes of Little Rock, to know that it was the labor movement, the trade union movement of this country, that was always in the leadership of the fight for the rights of the people. It might have been the fight to abolish sweatshops, or to establish public schools, or to integrate the workers on the job. On these and many other issues the labor movement has always been ready to fight for the welfare of the people.

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Betty Bentz

HTC General Organizer

Our Better Race Relations Award symbolizes our attitude in this field. It speaks for the fact that the trade union movement is in the forefront of the fight for equal rights for all, regardless of race, background, color or creed.

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Charles Zimmerman

AFL-CIO Rights Committee Chairman

I'm very happy to be here tonight and to congratulate Local 6 for the splendid idea of establishing this Award, and especially this year for giving it to the children who symbolize the struggle throughout the length and breadth of this country for integration in the public schools. The people here and in many communities throughout the country, African-Americans and whites, Jews and Gentiles, are all with them in this struggle.

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Hulan Jack

Manhattan Borough President

I wish to thank the Civil Rights Committee of the Hotel & Club Employees Union, AFL-CIO, for the invitation to participate in this memorable program of paying tribute to these nine students who exhibited great heroism, courage and determination to get an education under the Supreme Court decision of 1954.

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Harry Van Arsdale, Jr.

NYC Central Labor Council President

Tonight is a great night for the labor movement and a great night for our country. Discrimination of all types is something that everyone has a responsibility to bring an end to. It is not, as these youngsters and those supporting them have learned, an easy road and it will not be an easy road.

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Roy Wilkens

NAACP Executive Secretary

So, in Little Rock, when the chips were down, when it wasn't a question of arguing before a judge, or passing a resolution, but the question was "Who goes up and in the door of that high school - no matter how many mobs are outside?" These kids were the kids that did it. I don't have to tell your union, that in the final analysis, that's what counts.

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Daisy Bates

Little Rock NAACP President

When you honor the children you are honoring me and when you honor me you are honoring the children. We accepted tonight with humility and great sadness, representing a chapter in American history that should never have been written.

Your action here tonight will give us courage to return to Little Rock in September 1958 to continue the job.

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At the United Nations

In the midst of tense world events, UN Secretary Dag Hammarskjold and Under Secretary General Ralph Bunche took time out to officially greet and welcome the Little Rock Nine to the United Nations.

When Ralph Bunche, United Nations Under Secretary and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, heard the Little Rock Nine were coming to New York, he insisted on the opportunity to personally meet and welcome them. When the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions heard the Little Rock Nine were coming as the guests of Hotel and Club Employees Union Local 6, William Kemsley, its UN representative, personally made arrangements for the most enjoyable and educational tour of the UN.

When the Little Rock Nine arrived on Friday afternoon, June 13, Ralph Bunche was not in his office as expected. He was in a special conference with UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold on the tense events in Lebanon that had erupted that week, Kemsley sadly informed the young guests. Kemsley proceeded to introduce them to their specially assigned guide, Mrs. Lea Rangel-Ribeiro, of India and they proceeded to lunch as guests of UN officials.

Bunche "apologized" for interrupting their lunch, and then told them: "In a real sense, what you've been doing is what the United Nations effort is in the international community - to meet provocation with reason and restraint, but to be firm in our determination to stand for right and justice. The whole world owes yon a debt of gratitude for what you've done."

Bunche drew warm chuckles when he made a comparison with himself at their age. He said he doubted he could have had such restraint, since he was not always "a man of peace," and had, in fact, been a "chip on the shoulder" type of person in his high school days. Bunche and Hammarskjold then hurried to a meeting for which they were already late, after a final good wish from Bunche that they have a pleasant next year, though not a more exciting one.

Continued battle for school integration

Foes of school integration continue to make Little Rock key testing ground for opposition to the United States Constitution

The United States Eighth Circuit Court in St. Louis has announced the appointment of three judges to hear the appeal on the court order barring racial integration in Central High School for two and one half years. This is one more legal twist in the bitter struggle taking place in Little Rock.

The beginning of the story is the historic 1954 decision of the Supreme Court ordering the schools to integrate. The Little Rock Arkansas school board took three years to comply with this decision.

In August of 1957 they announced that integration would go into effect with the opening of school in September. Nine young African-American youngsters registered. They were met on the school grounds on September 2, opening day, by uniformed troops, who barred their way. Gov. Orville Faubus in outright defiance of law had called out the National Guard. The children did not gain entrance to the school.

On September 3, Judge Ronald N. Davies ordered the school board to proceed with integration. Governor Faubus, however, kept the troops at Central High. Not until September 20, when Judge Davies ordered that there was to be no interference with his original order, were the troops withdrawn. By this time, however, the White Citizen's Council and the mobs had time to organize. For on September 23, when the children attempted to enter the school, violence and rioting broke out.

It was at this point that President Eisenhower sent in the 101st Airborne troops and took the National Guard out of Faubus' control by federalizing it. The children attended the school first with hundreds of troops surrounding the grounds. Soldiers drove them back and forth to their homes. Later, there were just a few who patrolled the halls, the gym classes and the cafeteria. Finally, most of the troops were withdrawn, leaving only a few to assure order.

The incidents within the school, however, continued. Fed by the bias and prejudice of their families, fellow students made a game of constant harassment.

In February, the school board went to the Courts asking that integration be stopped for two and one half years, pleading "unfavorable community attitude."

The case was heard by Judge Harry J. Lemley, a 74-year-old native Southerner. Judge Lemley ruled on June 21 that integration could be halted until 1961.

NAACP lawyers, who had been fighting the students' case through the Courts, requested that Judge Lemley suspend his order. This he refused to do. The case was then taken to the Court of Appeals and as THE VOICE was going to press a request had been made that the hearing be held on August 4. This would give the courts an opportunity to hand down a decision before school opens in the fall.

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