John Boozman: “On September 25th, our State--and our Nation--will recognize nine brave men and women who, when they were teenagers…”

“On September 25th, our State--and our Nation--will recognize nine brave men and women who, when they were teenagers, came forward to claim their Constitutional right to an equal education despite protests, threats of violence and even the Arkansas National Guard. I strongly support this legislation which honors not only a red-letter date in our State's history, but a seminal event in the movement to unite our country as truly one people, indivisible. Fifty years ago, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Pattillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls, climbed the steps of Central High School. Few other moments in our history can compare to the ascent made by the Little Rock Nine. It was an ascent to a new plateau in the relations of Americans to their fellow citizens and a new plateau on the path to the American we now know. On September 25, 1957, when the Nine made it to the top of those Central High School steps, they stood in a place where, up till that point, others said they could not go. Then, they did what was, in fact, the most important thing that day: They went inside to learn.”