Special Report Transcript Episode 19, Section 5, Time 33:01

Seven of the original Little Rock Nine are here today and in a few moments they are going to come face to face for the first time in 38 years with some of those white students at Central High School who tormented them. One who chanted protest outside the school, another white student who hurled a bowl of soup on a black student and yet another who witnessed it all but stood by in silence. They come today asking for forgiveness. But first, you know there’s a saying that goes like this ‘if it doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger.’ I think that’s especially true of the first black students to integrate Central High School. Terrence Roberts is now a Professor at Antioch University in California, who recalls the pain of that era but also an act of kindness that he says he will never forget. Melba Pattillo Beals was only 15 when she integrated Central High School. She chronicles her battles in a book called Warriors don’t cry. Ernest Green recalls each day was like going to war and says not a day went by when one of the black students did not want to quit. Thelma Mothershed Wair is a retired teacher and feels that the traumatic experience of integrating Central made her a better person and teacher, what don’t kill you make you better. Jefferson Thomas says that he made one white friend at Central High, an atheist who believed there could not be a God because no God could possibly allow his black children to be treated this way. Carlotta Walls LaNier’s family home was vandalized during integration. Carlotta is still trying to forget all that ugliness. And Minijean Brown went into the all white school with high hopes for a new America, but she says when she stood up to the harassment and abuse she was expelled.

Notes: Oprah Winfrey

References: there are no references for this transcript