Lexi's+Virtual+Legacy

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=//Lexi's Virtual Legacy: Ernest Green//=

//Role in the Civil Rights Movement://
Ernest Green's role in the civil rights movement was a very //big// role. Ernest Green was one of the Little Rock Nine. The Little Rock Nine, was a group of black high school students, who were chosen to take on the experiment of learning in an all white school. He was the oldest of the nine. They entered the school on the morning of September 23, 1957. Knowing there would be some kind of violence they entered through the back entrance. There was a large mob of angry whites surrounding the school, there were also reporters, however, many of them were in support of the nine black students. Many of the whites in the front of the school, had not realized that the blacks had entered the school. As they mobbed into the school, the nine black students left before anything else could happen. To make sure that the students had a successful year, President Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to Little rock. Each one of the nine students had their own solider, but whites still had the opportunity to beat them. Melba Patillo Beals, was stabbed and had acid poured into her eyes. A patroller then poured water into her eyes, if it weren't for him, she would have not been able to see again. The year was brutal for the nine students. However, they got through it. Ernest Green went on to graduate from Michigan State University with a B.A. in 1962 and a M.A. in 1964. Over his life time, he has received numerous awards and honors. Including the NAACP Springarm Award, The Rockefeller Public service award, and honorary doctorates from Tougalon College, Michigan State University, and Central State University.

//Eyewitness Testimonials://
" I never expected it to be life threatening...I didn't have any real sense of how dangerous it could have been, and was, until we got home." (Ernest and the other eight, watched their terrifying first day on the television screen, after an exiting day of school.) "There was an air force base 'bout ten to fifteen miles down the road from our house. That night I slept, while planes came fly into our town. They came flying in by the thousands. There were paratroopers, and support equipment...lots of planes...they sent them all with support materials and jeeps..some people got hyper crisis. No one could get into the school without the appropriate passes. They had blocked off the school and secured the area very, very tightly."

//Photos://
Ernest Green

//Bibliography://
"Ernest Green Biography" The History Makers 1999. May 17, 2007 

Green, Ernest "Freedom's Childrens" New York: Penguin Group ©1993

"Little Rock Nine" __Librarythinkquest.org__ Think Quest May 22, 2007 