Choices Students Made in Little Rock: Reading Set 2

Explore the readings in this set:

• Minnijean Brown and the Chili Incident
• Gloria Ray Faced Threats of Acid-Filled Water Guns to Attend School
• Why Carlotta Walls LaNier Enrolled at Little Rock Central High

Minnijean Brown and the Chili Incident

In this excerpt, Melba Pattillo Beals describes an incident that occurred in the cafeteria during lunch. 

As always on Tuesday the hot lunch was chili, which Minnijean loved. So while I took my seat with the others, she got in line to buy her chili. . . . As Minnijean made her way back toward us, her tray loaded down with a big bowl of chili, we saw her hesitate. She had to inch her way through a tight spot where mostly boys sat at tables on either side of her path. She had stopped dead in her tracks. We all froze, realizing she must be in trouble. We could see two boys near her—one directly in her path. Something awful was happening, but there was no way any of us could do anything to rescue her. We had been instructed that in such instances we were never to move toward the person in danger for fear of starting a riot.

I was panic-stricken. Minnijean was being hassled by those boys. Snickering among themselves and taunting her, they had pushed a chair directly in front of her. For a long moment, she stood there patiently, holding her tray high above their heads.

As more and more people realized something was brewing, the chatter in the cafeteria quieted down. I could tell Minnijean was trapped and desperate, and very fast running out of patience. She was talking back to the boys in a loud voice, and there was jostling all around her . . . 

I beckoned to Minnijean to go around her hasslers, but she was standing perfectly still. It was as though she was in a trance, fighting within herself.

Later she would explain that the boys had been taunting her, sticking their feet in the aisle to trip her, kicking her, and calling her names. But we were not close enough to see details of the dilemma she faced. All we saw was her wavering as though she was trying to balance herself—and then her tray went flying, spilling chili all over two of the boys.

Everyone was stunned, silent for a long moment. Her attackers sat with astonished looks on their faces as greasy chili dropped down over their heads. All at once, our people who were serving food behind the counter began to applaud. This was greeted by an ominous silence and then loud voices, all chattering at once, as the chili-covered boys stood up. I wonder[ed] whether we’d ever get out of there alive. Suddenly a school official showed up, and Minnijean was whisked away, while we were hustled out of the cafeteria. ¹  

Gloria Ray Faced Threats of Acid-Filled Water Guns to Attend School

Daisy Bates was the Little Rock Nine’s main advocate during the 1957 school year. In her memoir, Bates recounts Gloria Ray’s experience at Central High. ²

Mrs. Ray stood on the porch and watched her daughter join the other students in the carpool that transported them each day to and from school . . .

Immediately after the students drove off, Mrs. Ray phoned me to tell me about the phone call she had received the night before.

“I received a call around midnight,” she related. “It was a woman who said that her son attended Central and that he had heard that some of the boys would have water pistols loaded with acid the next day. The woman said that, as a parent herself, she felt it was her duty to warn me about the danger to my daughter. And the woman said, ‘If I were you I’d keep my daughter at home.’”

Mrs. Ray went on: “I tried to reason that this was only a new form of intimidation they were trying. But how can I live with the possibility that the woman could be telling the truth, that acid might be thrown in my child’s face, possibly blinding her for life. There was no sleep for me last night.”

By the time I was able to reach the Vice-Principal by phone, the damage had already been done. . . . As Gloria was leaving her locker, she saw a group of boys blocking the hall. She turned and walked in the opposite direction. Just as she turned a corner in the corridor, she came face to face with a boy holding a water pistol. He aimed it at her face.

She told me later, “If I live forever I don’t think I’ll ever be as frightened as I was at that moment. I just stood there, petrified with fear. I shut my eyes tight. After liquid hit me in the face, I could hear the boy running down the hall. I dropped my books and grabbed the hem of my dress and wiped my face. It took a moment or so before I could convince myself that it was only water.” As Gloria was relating this horrifying experience, tears came rolling down her cheeks, but she was apparently unaware that she was crying.

In spite of the mounting attacks, the incessant humiliations, the degradations, and the harassment inflicted on the Negro students, the courageous youngsters were not to be deterred from their single-minded goal. When school reconvened after spring vacation, all of them returned to their classes at Central. 

Why Carlotta Walls LaNier Enrolled at Little Rock Central High

A Denver reporter interviewed Carlotta Walls LaNier decades later about her experiences at Central High School. This story describes the then 14-year-old’s decision to attend the school.

Central felt like the natural choice . . .

“I was supposed to go to school there,” LaNier said. “I passed it every day on the way to junior high school. I played baseball with the white kids all summer long. It seemed like a natural progression to go to school with them. No one expected all this.

“I knew it was important, but I didn’t know what it would become,” LaNier said. “I knew it was a step in the right direction. But I credit my parents for having those dreams—for having dreams and grasping opportunity.”

She didn’t tell her parents she was one of 147 black children to sign up to attend Central in the spring.

When the registration card arrived in July—along with a note to meet with the superintendent—it generated little discussion at home.

“In my family it was expected you would reach for an opportunity,” LaNier said. “This was a gold ring . . . ”

School Superintendent Virgil Blossom told the families of the 39 black children who eventually registered at Central that the students would be expelled if they retaliated against their abusers and, to minimize conflict, they wouldn’t be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities. LaNier gave up student council and the basketball team. Others among the nine gave up track, choir and band.

“When you’re going to school with all these opportunities and you can’t take advantage of them, that’s a little hurtful,” LaNier said. “But we knew that going in.”

After the meeting, the number of black students dwindled to 10. One girl didn’t return after being confronted by the threatening mob the first day. The Little Rock Nine were born . . .

The nine were harassed and intimidated. Gloria Ray was hit by a rock and pushed down a flight of stairs. Minnijean Brown was suspended for dumping lunchroom chili on antagonists and eventually expelled. Two white students were suspended for wearing cards that read, “One down . . . Eight to go.”

Carlotta Walls, whose heels were stepped on so often they bled, quietly made the honor roll. ³

• 1Melba Pattillo Beals, Warriors Don’t Cry (New York: Simon Pulse, 1994), 148–50.
• 2Daisy Bates, The Long Shadow of Little Rock: A Memoir (New York: Van Rees Press, 1962), 143–44.
• 3Dave Curtin, “A Lonely March to Equality,” The Denver Post, May 16, 2004.