From Thursday, October 12th to Saturday, October 14th, the Hastings community will be visited by Minnijean Brown-Trickey, one of the members of the Little Rock Nine. The Little Rock Nine was a group of the first African American students to enroll in Central High School in Arkansas following the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, which desegregated public schools in the United States. The group of nine students faced brutal harassment and physical assaults by those opposed to the decision when they tried to enter the school.
The idea for the event was spearheaded by three Hastings residents: Jennifer Ito, Eddie Crawford, and Caitlin Chang. They initially wanted to recognize Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark, two psychologists who lived on Pinecrest Drive and who were vital figures in the Civil Rights Movement. The Clarks are most well known for their doll experiment, a test on internalized racism in African American children where it was found there was preference for lighter skin dolls over darker skin dolls. This experiment was subsequently used as crucial evidence to why schools should be desegregated in the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
As articulated by Mr. Greg Smith, the chairman of the History Department at Hastings High School, the three Hastings residents started an initiative “to get Mount Hope Blvd co-named Drs. Mamie and Kenneth Clark’s Way.”
“As our main artery, Farragut, comes into Hastings, and you see the schools, you’ll also see Dr. Clark’s Way–it’s a nice public way to recognize their work,” said Mr. Smith.
In addition to the renaming of the street, Ito, Crawford, and Chang also procured funding to get informational signs that outline the lives of the Clarks and Minnijean Brown at the high school and at Hillside.
Mr. Smith and Dr. Jenice Mateo-Toledo have been collaborating with the residents to make the street renaming a larger, village-wide celebration by involving the Hastings schools.
“I thought it would be nice to also have an event or speaker, so we talked about Minnijean Brown, since she lived with the Clarks and was part of the Little Rock Nine. We thought it would be great if she came in for the unveiling of the signs and also held assemblies at the school,” said Mr. Smith.
The culmination of the work of Ito, Chang, Crawford, in addition to Mr. Smith and Dr. Mateo-Toledo, involves three days of events: on October 12th, Brown-Trickey will speak at Hillside and the middle school, on October 13th she will come to the high school, and on October 14th will be the unveiling of the new street sign.
We are extremely fortunate and grateful to have the opportunity to speak with Minnijean Brown-Trickey and are looking forward to hearing about her life and her time in Hastings.
