The Little Rock Nine

Student Study Group

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Elmer J. Whiting, III, © Gertrude Samuels. Object number 2011.17.201.

Ernest Green on his graduation day

Ernest Green on his graduation day 

Did you know? Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. attended graduation ceremonies at Central High School in May 1958 to see Ernest Green, the only senior among the Little Rock Nine, receive his diploma.

The Ernest Green Story

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ernest_Green_Story

“After the Little Rock Nine’s year at Central High School, many schools follow in their footsteps. In 1960 desegregation began in Louisiana; at first, it was boycotted in New Orleans but the protesting eventually ceased. Places such as Las Vegas, Nevada, and Boston, Massachusetts, also started desegregating and fighting for equal education.
     The Little Rock Nine was one of the first groups that integrated into an all-White high school. They accomplished their goals of surviving a year at Central High School and starting a fight for desegregation. Ernest Green managed to graduate despite the constant threats and attacks from white students and their parents. Two other students from the Little Rock Nine also graduated in later years. By the 1970s, virtually all schools were fully desegregated. The Little Rock Nine started a fight for equal education among Blacks and Whites and achieved their goal. For this accomplishment, they were awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in 1998 by President Bill Clinton. Their legacy is long-lasting, and their impact on diversity in schools is still seen today.”  

 

Crisis at Central High

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_at_Central_High

Written by

Elizabeth Huckaby (memoir)

Richard Levinson

William Link

Directed by Lamont Johnson

Starring

Joanne Woodward
Charles Durning
Henderson Forsythe
Calvin Levels
William Russ
Tamu Blackwell
Shannon John
Bonnie Pemberton
Music by Billy Goldenberg

Crisis at Central High is a 1981 made-for-television movie about the Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957, based on a draft of the memoir by the same name by former assistant principal Elizabeth Huckaby.

William Link and Richard Levinson wrote the screenplay and were executive producers together with David Susskind of Time-Life Productions. The film starred Joanne Woodward as Huckaby and told the events from that character’s point of view, although one obituary at the time of Huckaby’s death cited her as saying the TV movie enlarged her role.  Woodward was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special and a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV, in 1981 and 1982 respectively.

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ARCHIVIST, EDUCATOR, HISTORIAN, and ARTiST
Dale Ricardo Shields is a 2017 winner of The Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award®, 2017 and 2015 Tony® award nominee for the Excellence in Theatre Education Award, the 2017 AUDELCO/"VIV" Special Achievement Award, 2020, 2021, and 2022 ENCORE AWARD / The Actors Fund and winner of the 2022.

Recently, he won the 2022 Legend Award from his alma mater Ohio University.

He is the 2021 winner of the Paul Robeson Award, presented (jointly) by the Actors Equity Association and the Actors Equity Foundation.

Research Accomplishments:
His extensive professional credits as a Director, Stage manager, and Actor (Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and Regional) As an actor he has appeared on Saturday Night Live, Another World, Guiding Light, The Cosby Show, and the ITV television series "Special Needs" and commercials and film.

Professor Shields is a member of the Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the American Guild of Musical Artists performance unions and an associate member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

He began his artistic academic career in New York City at Playwrights Horizon, The South Bronx Action Theatre, and Mind Builders, and then was invited to join the teaching staff at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre (New York Shakespeare Festival). He represented the United States for Theatre Young Audiences at the ASSITEJ Theatre Festival in London, England.

He has been a Professor and Visiting Artist at Ohio University, The College of Wooster, Denison University, Macalester College, Randolph- Macon College, Susquehanna University, and SUNY Potsdam.

He holds B.F.A and M.F.A, Degrees from Ohio University.

Website(s)

Iforcolor.org [Research]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Ricardo_Shields [Career]