Chairman of the board of the naacp. Interim president , ceo and to the late elsy and bates, i bring you grievance. To our mayor, the city manager bruce moore, the city board of directors of little rock, to the sixth Anniversary Committee and most of all the little rock nine and their families, we welcome you to this 60 Educational Forum for the city of little rock and the state of arkansas. We thank you for being here and hope something is said or done that will give you a better understanding when you leave here today and let me digress for a moment and say that naacp was the organization that worked and spearheaded the little rock 9. A terrible time in our history. I remind you this was way before the march on washington. Its way before in 1964 civil rights act. Its way before the 1965 Voting Rights act. These young people wanted to do to get an education. Thats all theyre aspiring to do. But our system, at that time said you will not be able to go to school based upon a decision by the United StatesSupreme Court. However, thoroughgood marshal, who went on to become a Supreme Court justice, along with the parents of the little rock 9 went through some of the turbulent time recorded in the history of america that the court said they were entitled to go to school. Yet this government system in arkansas said no, you will not go to school at central high school. Imagine those young people set out to get an education. Thats all they wanted to do was get an education and was denied that opportunity and paid a tremendous debt that all of us in this room is enjoying today that we owe them a great, great gratitude for their contribution for what they went through to make it possible for us to be in this room today. We need give them an applause. Now i wont prolong the time i have the task of introducing our speaker. Our speaker is no stranger. His dad was one of the lawyers along with thur good marshal who work would the naacp to make it possible. Our speaker is a sitting judge, not retired judge, a sitting judge for the state of arkansas, the city of little rock. One of three juvenile judges th thatter day to day took on the task of being a surrogate for young people who has lost their way and is sit in the court room and offer up many, Many Solutions to the problems that the young people face of the day. And that is none other than judge wylie jr. He has his education degree. You know he had to have that in order to be a judge. But we need to talk about the many young people that has come before him in his court and he has made a conscious decision and worked hard so they can be productive citizens. The judge has served as a sitting judge since 1993 for the current term on a day to day task doing the same thing for people today that the little rock nine was doing when they were trying to get an education is redirect young people and get them on the right course and for that we should be grateful to judge wylie bran jr. We run a tight schedule. So i am going to move out of the way and let him come up and begin to give us our Opening Statements and our purpose. Judge wylie bran jr. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Charles. It is my privilege today to participate in this 60th anniversary celebrating and or commemorating and or kmiserating about the events surrounding the integration of Little Rock High School in 1957. Things such as the curage of the little rock nine and that of their families is something that is worthy of celebration and praise. Things search as governors defiance of the rights of the negro students of the United States constitution. His defiance of federal court orders and the racial hatred and mob violence directed at the 9 and others are things that need to be called outfor the acts of cowardess which they were and dually remembered for postator and im afraid were starting to creep down that road again but maybe more on that before i finish. The theme of the 60th anniversary is reflections of progress and fairly recent events certainly give us a lot to reflect upon at this time and the issue of progress is up for mixed reviews. When the blockbuster decision of brown verses board of education was issued in may 1957, a decisioning which ordered the end of statesponsored segregated schools, the Supreme Court had this to say about the importance of an education and listen to this. Reflect on this. Today education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments, compulsery School Attendance laws both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to our democratic society. It is required in the performance of our most basic public responsibilities, even service in the armed forces. It is the very foundation of good citizenship. Today it is a principal instrument and awakening the child to Cultural Values and preparing him for later professional training and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment. And these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the tuntd of an education. Such an opportunity where the state has undertaken to provide it is a right that must be made available to all on equal terms. And i would submit to you today that those words have as much vitality today, perhaps even more than when they were uttered in 1954. Brown went on to talk about how segregated schools were harmful to black children and again let me read briefly from brown. To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications, solely because of their rage generates a feeling of infear yort as to their status in the community that may effect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to be undone. [ applause ] the impact is greater when it has the sanction of law. For the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting this isnt supposed to be happening. Is denoting the inferiorty of the negro group. It effects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to retard the educational and Mental Development of negro children. And to deprive them i dont understand this. And to deprive them of some of the benefits they would have received in a racially integrated School System. Im glad im done with that part. That time of brown thurogood marshal had had established himself at the time of brown, he had established himself as the chief legal strategist for the naacps Legal Defense fund and he believed that the only way to end racism in america was to have an integrative america where people would just see each other as their fellow human being as opposed to just some other person. He also wanted black people to have equal Educational Opportunities and both of those objectives could only be accomplished if from the earliest ages children went to school with one another, sat next to each other, played with each other, and had had meaningful interaction on a truly integrated basis. In the aftermath of the brown decision, a group of black arkansas associate would the naacp, which included daisy bates, reverend bates and my father, wylie branten sr, then a young lawyer in pine bluff decided to press the issue of integration in little rock but Little Rock School district had had come up with the plan of gradual integration but the arkansas naacp, including the Little Rock Branch thought the School Districts plan did not go far enough or fast enough. It was deliberate speed as in slow speed. Not liking the School Districts plan, the arkansas naacp had my father to file a lawsuit on behalf of the neego plaintiffs seeking the immediate and full integration of the Little Rock School district. That lawsuit eventually became known as cooper versus aaron. It ended up in the United StatesSupreme Court in 1958. And after the lawsuit was filed in january 1956 my father did enlist the support of other lawyers associate would the naacp. Prior to the and decided that the plan was an acsecable they paved the way for two events to unfold the way they did in 1957. First, they adopted the little rock plan and made it the order of the court. Therefore if anyone sought to interfere with the little rock plan going forward, that person or persons would be violating an existing court order and second the federal court retained jurisdiction of the case, now a court order, the plaintiffs could seek immediate relief in Court Without having to start all over from scratch. Miss mini jean brown tricky, mr. Earnest green, ms. Thelma mothershed wear, ms. Melba beales, ms. Carleta walls beer and Jefferson Thomas who passed away in 2010. When they tried to blocked a mission to the central rock high school, he was immediately in violation of a federal court order. Because of the earlier lawsuit filed by my father, they were able to go right back to court and seek enforcement the Enforcement Authority of the federal government. It was the erupting crisis in the fall that got mr. Marshal more directly involved in the case. He never publicly vilified the courts. He actually understood his role as president and how our system of Government Works and ultimately he made the decision to call out the federal troops to enforce the authority of the federal court and to enforce the kaurn Constitutional Rights of the nine to attend little rock central. There were many things the little rock 9 did to advance civil rights in america and the world. Because of their extraordinary curage caught on photographs and moving film, the actions of the angry crowd towards the little rock 9, towards the children shamed america before the world. Unfortunately the United States had to be shamed by many more acts of violence before the passage of significant civil rights legislation in the mid1960s on the administration of linden baynes johnson. These attempted to address Voting Rights, fair housing, public accommodations and equal employment opportunities. And in fact weve seen substantial progress for many of the groups. Daisy and elsy bates, lawyers wylie branlten senior and Thurgood Marshal and the uthsers on the team and the community which supported, protected and encouraged them, all of them played an Important Role in our struggle for civil and human rights. But all is not well. We reflect on this question and take little rock as an example. The Little Rock School district is overwhelmingly populated by black students in a city where we have a majority white population. If brown tells us that segregation harms negro students in 1957, are our students now being harmed in 2017 by a resegregated School System which has been caused in some measure by white flight which began with brown and governmental policies . Just something to think about. Is the trend towards Charter Schools and freedom of choice harming the Educational Opportunities of the children who are left in the regular schools . Something to think about. And whats up with the states take over the Little Rock School dist rlrict and the disenfranchisement of students to pick the superintendent of their choice . These are troubling issues and what about racism . Whether it be the up front in your face racism or perhaps the more insidious form of racism known as implicit bias or unconscious bias. Up until the last president ial election the overt racism had more or less gone into the closet and because was expressed by only a fringe element. With statements of the high political leaders, overt racism has gained new respectability. Implicit or unconscious bias has never gone away. Sure, barack obama was elected president for two terms of the United States, which was something i had never expected to see in my lifetime. While there are many reasons why the last president ial election turned out the way it did and many of those reasons are still being uncovered and desieferred, i submit one of the factors that played into our most recent election was a racially motivated, either by overt or implicit bias back lash against president obama. We are at another major cross roads in our history which challenge the core democracy and freedom. We need remember the grace, curage and determination displayed by the little rock 9 when they faced the Political Forces of the state and the angry mob back in 1957. There is much work that remains to be done in our ongoing quest for equal justice under the law. Thank you. [ applause ] frrsz [ applause ] why dont i give you a couple of seconds to reflect on those words. What beautiful, beautiful presentation this morning and i think we all kind of share those feelings that our judge expressed so well. Thank you. My name is janice f kerny and im not as tall as you are. My name is janice f kerny and i will be the moderator for this mornings first panel and i would like to first of all thank the city of little rock and specifically bruce moore. Who i had never worked with up close until i became a part of the committee and i thank del charls for that. I am so impressed with his leadership style and his ability to pull things together in spite of so many different personalities that he had to work with. And i think had the most important glue to that whole thing was knowing that we were celebrating the little rock 9 and he had the whole city behind him in that and i just give him so much credit for his ability to do that. We have some amazing panelists this morning. Who will be talking about where we were before 1957. Most of them do not need any introducti introductions. Ill give you a very brief introduction on the two that have not spoken this morning. But let me open up and say that our panel is based on the fact that nothing in our world happens in a vacuum. Arkansas, america, the world didnt suddenly wake up in september 1957 and find an imperfect world. It was there already. There was injustice, there was inhumanity, uncivil rights, unnecessary poverty, discrimination, inequities and everything from schools to hospitals to government jobs. All of this happened before september 1957. Before those nine brave children went into central high school. So i do think that its important for those of us who know from common logic that every action is based on another action or inaction. That we have to tell the whole truth. As the judge mentioned. We have a responsibility to and i think this will be a good start. So thats what well spend the next 45 minutes discussing. And im going to start out with just one question. For ms. Green washington. Who shes not just ernie greens big sister. She has a long resume of important work that shes done over the years in education and history and i think those are two extremely important areas for us to be involved in. So im going to open it up to her and ask her to talk about what do you think was one of the most important precursors to the 1957 crisis . If you had had a crystal ball, a week, a month, a year before the children, the nine children went into central high, what would you have seen to make you know that little rock was headed to this crescendo that we call the 1957 crisis at central high . Thank you. Its such a pleasure to be home again and to participate in this really, really important event. Im going to go back a few decades. In the 40s my our mother and im the sister of earnest green. Our mother and our aunt were both teachers at dunbar high school, that was the colored high school and my alma mater. They were a part of the group of teachers who, in the 40s, filed a lawsuit against the Little Rock School board for equal pay for black teachers. At that time black teachers were paid far less than white teachers with the same credentials. As a part of that lawsuit the naacp and i must mention my brother reminded me this morning that our mother was a life long member of naacp and at that time dutfully paid the 5 a year membership. The naacp supported the Little Rock School teachers in their lawsuit by sending their Legal CounselThurgood Marshal to represent the teachers. Well, my part of that, i was about four years old. And i remember the conversations that my mother and i had about this lawsuit. At one of Thurgood Marshals visits, we were asked to host him. Why . Because none of the hotels by law would accommodate colored guests. Well, again i mention i was four and at four you know a Little Something but not a lot. I remember in the conversation my mother said that Thurgood Marshal would fly into little rock. Well, during that time people travelled by trains for the most part and air travel there were propellor planes. Jet planes had not been invented yet. And i recall standing on my step stool at our back window waiting for the plane to land in our backyard. Well, when the door bell rang and my mother announced that attorney marshal was here, i was absolutely appalled that he would deny me the opportunity to see his plane land. In fact i told his son years later that i dont think i ever forgave your father for disappointing me. But that lawsuit was won by the Little Rock School teachers and that group of teachers collected enough money that year to pay the salary of the plaintiff, sue cowen williams, for whom the library is named here in little rock.