Being the History Nerd that I am, I was stoked to get to meet and listen to Minnijean Brown Trickey. She is incredible. Her resilience and perseverance in the face of racism, violence, hatred, bullying, belittling, and outcasting in America is inspirational. But it is not the only inspirational thing about her. It is that, in the face of continued racism and violence, she continues to preach non-violence. It is that she is not bitter about what happened, but feels sorry for the perpetrators of the violence against her.
When Minnijean told the story of how she ended up being one of the Little Rock 9, what stood out was that she didn't have any political motivation in going there. Her naivete reminded me that this was a group of 14 year olds - Year 10s! - who braved the hostile environment they faced.
She told the story of her expulsion from school, first to a group of teachers and then to students. She says the last straw was being hit in the back of the head with a purse, picking it up and finding it filled with combination locks. After months of being spat on, slammed into walls, scalded with hot water, having battery acid dropped on them from the third floor, verbally abused, finding awful things on their chairs and in their lockers, and threats toward their homes and families, Minnijean finally said "leave me alone, white trash." That was it. That was enough. Because their teachers and their guards chose not to see the rest of what was happening. Her suspension card even makes her the cause of the violence, instead of the other way around.
When asked why she didn't just leave Central, her reply was that they knew how important their resilience was on a bigger scale. Minnijean also spoke about a sense of failure that she felt after her expulsion, and that at some point surviving the day had become almost a point of honour for her. Throughout her talk, Minnijean emphasised that her strong self-belief in herself as a beautiful, intelligent, black woman made her a target, but also kept her from bowing under the stress. You can see from the top photo that such self belief was well deserved, and why Beth Roy, in her 1999 book of oral histories of the white women alumni of Central, found that Minnijean was targeted for walking "...the halls of Central like she belonged there.”
Minnijean spoke about not being a silent bystander when it comes to bullying of any kind - of making sure the person who is being bullied knows that you see what is happening and you support them. She herself has continued to dedicate her life to the service of others.
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