Lesson in activism from textbook hero
“I know who you are, because I know who I was. I know you’re worried and concerned about what our society is like right now.”
Minniejean Brown-Trickey, one of the Little Rock Nine who integrated an all-white high school in 1957
The students gathered in the high school auditorium had read about Minnijean Brown-Trickey, learning about the day she walked through a rage-fueled mob to desegregate a Little Rock, Ark., school, and how she was expelled later that year for an infamous chili incident.
She was only 15 at the time, one of nine black teenagers who walked into a white Southern high school in 1957 and then into the civil rights chapter of high school history books.
She was an icon, the San Mateo students said, someone who exemplified what young people can do to make a difference — yet until Thursday only as a name in the pages of their textbooks.
Brown-Trickey, one of the Little Rock Nine, smiled as she walked out onto the auditorium stage at Aragon High School before spending the next hour answering questions and recounting the day she marched into Central High School under the protection of armed soldiers.
“I was the most gorgeous thing
you ever saw,” Brown-Trickey, now 76, told the several hundred San Mateo students gathered in the auditorium, their cell phones forgotten as they leaned in to hear her firsthand account. “I was smart. I was talented. I was thoughtful.”
Brown-Trickey recounted what it was like to be out front in a fight for desegregation and equal access to education, to be a teenager who resented the public restrooms with pretty pink doors and signs that read “White Ladies.”
She described going to class every day, knowing her white peers would trip her, spit on her or push her into lockers. She kept a change of clothes at school because she was frequently doused in soup. And she recounted the chili incident, which included students trying to trip her and her full lunch tray falling on the heads of two boys — resulting in her expulsion.
She didn’t know all of it would make her a historical figure.
“You just take a step and see what happens,” she told the students.
It was a message that resonated with the students, who see themselves at another flash point in history, this time over gun violence in schools and on the streets.
Brown-Trickey said she took a stand, in part because she was worried. Today’s teens must be worried, too, she added, noting that Friday is the 19th anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School.
While integrating Central High wasn’t easy, 17 people didn’t die, Brown-Trickey said, referring to those who were killed two months ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Fla.
“I can’t imagine what it must be like for you,” she said. “I can’t imagine.”
Backstage, Brown-Trickey said she believes the school walkouts, the protests — including the 200 Bay Area students who went to Sacramento Thursday to speak to legislators about gun control measures — indicate perhaps the origins of a movement.
“My definition of a movement is people doing things simultaneously in different places,” she said, adding you don’t need a Martin Luther King Jr. to spark one. “So many young people say, ‘We don’t have a leader,’ and I say, ‘No, no, no, you are the leaders.’ ”
Brown-Trickey is speaking from experience.
The civil rights icon has spent a good part of her life in the years since the desegregation of Central High speaking to young people about her role in making change.
“I know who you are, because I know who I was,” she told the students. “I know you’re worried and concerned about what our society is like right now.”
That first day at Central High, she wanted to give up in the face of the onslaught of hate. But she kept going.
There were 20 white classmates who were nice to the Little Rock Nine. There were 200 who tortured them verbally and physically. And then there were 1,900 silent witnesses, she said.
“The silent witnesses are the ones who stand by and say nothing,” Brown-Trickey said, pausing to study the pin-drop-silent auditorium, a sea of diversity staring back.
“Before the civil rights movement, this room of people could not exist,” she said.
As the hour-long talk wrapped up, it became clear that it was not just a history lesson, but perhaps something of a motivational speech aimed at creating a new chapter in history books.
“We’re all the Little Rock Nine,” she said. “We can choose to be the Little Rock Nine. We could choose to be the (200) terrorists, the 20 nice kids or those who remained silent.”
The choice for many of the students was clear. They want to be the next Minnijean Brown-Trickey.
“She is what you strive to be,” said Aragon senior Jenn Dixon, 17, following the talk. “She just proves what we do matters, that kids can and will change the world.” Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker