The Face of Bigotry in America

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WLuVC6DDzWrCT4ip_PY05FlfpY56496nYmbwHmS7t7g/edit?usp=sharing

Every  person who has taken an American History class has seen the photos of the Little Rock Nine being verbally abused and berated by their white schoolmates as the school integrates for the first time. More specifically, they have seen the photo of Elizabeth Eckford walking with her head held high as her schoolmates look at her with disgust, one even screaming at her from the back. This picture has been and continues to be a glimpse into America’s bigoted and hateful past.  

When looking at the photograph by Will Counts my eye, like many others, is drawn first to a girl screaming in the background. The viewer can tell she is yelling  by the scrunch in her nose and how wide her mouth is open. The viewer can also tell she is angrily yelling by the furrow in her brow. She is staring down the source of her anger, which is a young black teen who is simply walking in front of her with some school books, this teen is Elizabeth Eckford. The screaming young woman’s hatred toward is blatantly obvious. There is such a large amount of anger on the girl’s face  toward Eckford just for existing. In the photo, she is not the only one bothered by this black teen’s presence.  Another white schoolmate smiles at the screaming girl, most likely encouraging her to continue. There are two young women on the left side of Eckford (right side of the picture) making faces at Eckford as if they are baffled by her appearance. Their brows were furrowed and their  mouths were frowning. Their faces say “You had the audacity to come to my school?”The girl closer to Eckford has her hand on the girl next to her as if she is nudging her away from Eckford. As if they don’t want to be infected by her or exist near her. It is also clear Eckford is viewed as an outsider among this group. She is the only  person of color in the photo and despite most of the people in the photo being other school girls her age, no one attempts to walk by her side. Instead, they all just stare or yell at the young girl. There are also army men in the back of the photo. The army men look out of place  in front of the big school building in the background and around a bunch of teen students. Their presence suggests that there must’ve been tension between groups that they were possibly sent to diffuse. However, in the photo multiple soldiers are watching Eckford be attacked, but none of them are moving towards her or even opening their mouths, suggesting they are not going to help her and most likely aren’t on her side. Eckford is not responding to the crowd. Her calm collected nature exists in juxtaposition to the volatile nature of the crowd. She simply tunes them out, suggesting that she has dealt with this behavior towards her before. At the age of no more than seventeen, she has dealt with being berated just for the color of her skin.

When staring at this picture for the first time in middle school, I, as a preteen in the 21st century, in one of the most progressive cities in the country, could not comprehend why these young women were so angry at this other young woman who had  done nothing to wrong them. It is only with the context of this picture that I then learned the true meaning and impact of this picture. The young African American teen in the photo is Elizabeth Eckford. She was one of nine of the first Black students to enroll at a formerly all white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. This came after the  Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case decision which banned the Jim Crow laws that prevented integration in schools. Many residents of the town were unhappy with the decision to integrate the school. The Little Rock Board of Education even discouraged the Black students from coming to the school. The state army was sent to block the students from entering. Those were the army men in the picture. Many of the white students also stood outside the school to discourage the Black students. The day that photo of Elizabeth Eckford was taken, September 4th 1957, she didn’t even make it into the school building. It was only when President Eisenhower sent the National Guard to escort the students three weeks later that they were finally able to attend their first full day of school.

The reason this image is so important is because it serves as a reminder of America’s racist past. It is a reminder that things didn’t just immediately get better for Black Americans after slavery ended. It is a reminder that in our semi-recent history, racism was commonplace in most of America. So common that a state government sent soldiers, people whose job is to protect and serve the citizens, to stop Black students, Black citizens,  from going to school with white students. Both Elizabeth Eckford and the screaming girl, Hazel Bryan, are still alive. This means that people with the same ideologies and beliefs Hazel once had are still alive and still raising children and families to potentially think and act in the heinous ways they did. The photographer of this photo, Will Counts, did have a reason for taking and sharing this photo. The photographer’s initial purpose in sharing this photo was most likely to show the rest of the country the severity of the racism that was still plaguing many places in the South. His goal was to inspire civil movements. His goal was to put a face on bigotry in America and give the nation a common enemy, racism. He was successful. The photo was first published in the Arkansas Democrat but circulated throughout the country. The screaming girl, Hazel Bryan, became an icon of racism in America and still is to this day. Bryan received hate mail and dropped out of her school. She eventually called Eckford and apologized and even educated herself on the Civil Rights Movement. However, Bryan’’s apology does not take away the scars and trauma that Eckford still has from that day. Furthermore, just because Bryan has tried to change her ways does not mean that is the case for everyone. Bryan’s screaming picture was just one example, one moment caught, of the discriminatory acts and people that have existed in America. 

 

Although there are no words in this picture, it speaks volumes. One can only imagine the disgraceful things being shouted at this poor woman who was just trying to get an education. While America has progressed as a country since the picture was taken, its importance still remains. We as a nation cannot forget that those people and those feelings still exist in places. 

 

Work Cited

Blakemore, Erin. “The Story Behind the Famous Little Rock Nine ‘Scream Image’.” 01 Sept. 2017. Web. 17 Sept. 2020.

Counts, Will. Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan. september 4th 1957. Indiana University, Little Rock.

Jaynes, Gerald D. “Little Rock Nine.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 11 Mar. 2020. Web. 17 Sept. 2020.