The Little Rock Nine

littlerocknine

Crisis at Central High exhibit. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Central High School National Historic Site sign. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Pres. Bill Clinton (C) chatting w. Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) outside Central High during an event marking the return of Little Rock Nine, 1st black students to attend school in 1957. (Photo by Cynthia Johnson/Getty Images)

(L-R) Little Rock Nine vets Beals, Eckford, Green, Karlmark, Lanier, Pres. Clinton & McKindra, in the ceremony marking the return of 1st Black students to attend Central High in 1957. (Photo by Cynthia Johnson/Getty Images)

(L-R) Melba Pattillo Beals, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls Lanier, Pres. Clinton, McKindra, Krupitsky, Mrs. Clinton, Roberts, Thomas, Brown Trickey & Mothershed Wair in return of Little Rock Nine, 1st black students to attend Central High, in 1957. (Photo by Cynthia Johnson/Getty Images)

Pres. & Mrs. Clinton (C) w. Little Rock Nine (L-R) Eckford, Green, Karlmark, Lanier, Roberts, Thomas, Brown Trickey & Mothershed Wair at the event marking the return of 1st black students to attend Central High in 1957. (Photo by Cynthia Johnson/Getty Images)

(HR) ABOVE: Terrence Roberts signs autographs for eager fans after the interfaith service at Congregation Emanuel. The nine members of what is now called the Little Rock Nine came together for only the 5th time in 50 years at Congregation Emanuel for an interfaith gathering. In 1957, nine ordinary teenagers walked out of their homes and stepped up to the front lines in the battle for civil rights for all Americans. The media coined the Little Rock Nine to identify the first African-American students to desegregate Little Rock Central High School. On September 3, 1957, the Little Rock Nine arrived to enter Central High school but were turned away by the Arkansas National Guard. The Little Rock Nine are Terrence Roberts, Minnijean Brown Trickey Elizabeth Eckford Ernest Green Thelma Mothershed Wair, Melba Pattillo Beals, Carlotta Wall LaNier, Jefferson Thomas, and Gloria Ray Karlmark. Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post (Photo By Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

Courtesy Spirit Trickey
Surviving members of the Little Rock Nine stand with former President Bill Clinton at Little Rock Central High School for the 60th anniversary of the school’s desegregation in 2017. Left to right: Melba Pattillo Beals, Minnijean Brown-Trickey, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Clinton, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, and Thelma Mothershed-Wair.

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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 taught and been a visiting artist at Ohio University, The College of Wooster, Denison University, Macalester 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]