LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Members of the Little Rock Nine held a public speaking event Friday morning to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Little Rock Central High School integration.
Dr. Terrence Roberts, MinniJean Brown, Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford and Gloria Karlmark were all present at the event. Sitting alongside each other, five of the eight surviving members detailed the life and legacy of their impact on the education system.
Surviving members of the Little Rock Nine gather on Sept. 23, 2022, in Little Rock ahead of weekend events commemorating the 65th anniversary of their historic integration of Central High School. 
Surviving members of the Little Rock Nine gather on Sept. 23, 2022, in Little Rock ahead of weekend events commemorating the 65th anniversary of their historic integration of Central High School.
The Little Rock Nine gained national attention in 1957 when nine Black teenagers were prevented from entering the Central High, where only whites attended. As the students attempted to attend the school, they were met with angry mobs and guardsmen day after day.
It wasn’t until September, 25,1957, that the members of Little Rock Nine were able to attend their first full day of classes at the historic high school, changing the dynamic in schools. Ernest Green became the first black graduate of Central High School in May 1958, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
The historic former high school students spoke at the Petit Jean Room at the Little Rock Marriott. When asked how racial issues have changed in the last 65 years, Roberts and Brown noted that little to no progress has been made.
“We’re where we are because we chose to be silent,” Eckford said.
Karlmark encouraged the younger generation to take advantage of moving forward to making the community a better place.
FILE – In this Sept. 25, 1957, file photo, nine African American students enter Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., escorted by troops of the 101st Airborne Division. (AP Photo/File) 
FILE – In this Sept. 27, 1957, file photo, two paratrooper officers escort black students from Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. School was closing for the weekend. (AP Photo/File) 
FILE – In this Sept. 25, 1957, file photo, white girls from Central High School laugh as troopers with bayonets force them to move in Little Rock, Ark. Federal forces were used to enforce integration in the face of racial tension in Arkansas. (AP Photo/File) 
FILE – In this Oct. 2, 1957, file photo, the first black students to enroll at Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., leave the building and walk toward a waiting Army station wagon following their classes. Monday, Sept. 25, 2017, marks the 60th anniversary of when nine black students enrolled at the Arkansas school. One of the nine students is obscured by another student in this photograph. (AP Photo/Ferd Kaufman, File) 
FILE – This Sept. 6, 1957, file photo shows students and members of the National Guard outside Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., weeks before nine black students entered the school protected by members of the 101st Airborne. The 60th anniversary of the Little Rock Nine’s enrollment is Monday, Sept. 25, 2017. (AP Photo/William P. Straeter, File) 
FILE – In this Sept. 26, 1957, file photo, members of the 101st Airborne Division take up positions outside Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., after President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered them into the city to enforce integration at the school. The 60th anniversary of the school’s desegregation is Monday, Sept. 25, 2017. (AP Photo/File) 
This combination of file photos shows the nine black teenagers who had to be escorted by federal troops past an angry white mob and through the doors of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Sept. 25, 1957. Top row from left are Minnie Brown, Elizabeth Eckford and Ernest Green; middle row, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Pattillo and Gloria Ray; bottom row, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas and Carlotta Walls. (AP Photos/File) 
This combination of Friday, Sept. 22, 2017 photos shows eight of the Little Rock Nine, the black teenagers who had to be escorted by federal troops past an angry white mob and through the doors of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., on Sept. 25, 1957. Top row from left are Minnijean Brown Trickey, Elizabeth Eckford and Ernest Green; middle row, Thelma Mothershed Wair, Melba Pattillo Beals and Gloria Ray Karlmark; bottom row, Terrence Roberts and Carlotta Walls LaNier. (AP Photos/Kelly Kissel) 
Elizabeth Eckford, one of the nine black students who first integrated Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957, sits on a reconstructed commemorative bench on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, 61 years to the day after she escaped to the bench from a crowd of white protesters who blocked her from entering the school in Little Rock, Ark. Current Central high students led the bench construction effort as part of the Central High Civil Rights Memory Project. (AP Photo/Hannah Grabenstein) 
A reconstructed bench commemorates the original to which Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine black students who first integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., escaped from a crowd of white protesters, seen on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Eckford returned to the bench 61 years to the day later after walking a portion of the two blocks she originally walked in 1957. Current Central high students led the bench construction effort as part of the Central High Civil Rights Memory Project. (AP Photo/Hannah Grabenstein) 
Central High School, the setting of a contentious desegregation effort in 1957 by Elizabeth Eckford and eight other black students known as the Little Rock Nine, is seen on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Little Rock, Ark. Eckford returned to the school 61 years to the day after she was blocked from entering by the Arkansas National Guard and white protesters to dedicate a commemorative reconstructed bench on which she originally sat. Current Central high students led the bench construction effort as part of the Central High Civil Rights Memory Project. (AP Photo/Hannah Grabenstein)
Friday’s event is one of many scheduled to honor the movement that marked the beginning of integration in schools. Little Rock Nine members will join Little Rock city officials Sunday to rename Park Street in front of the high school as “Little Rock Nine Way.” The ceremony will begin at 3 p.m.
After the renaming, former President Bill Clinton, Governor Asa Hutchinson and Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. will hold a program at the Clinton Presidential Center at 5 p.m. This event is invite-only.
A live stream of Friday morning’s news conference is available in the video player above.
