Your bravery, courage, and strength go beyond. Being the first anything is no small feat. With Barack Obama's presidency giving this nation their first black president, he even requested that the Norman Rockwell painting of you be showcased in the white house. You have inspired us to claim our place in this nation.
In 1960, you were informed by the NAACP that you were one of six black children to pass the test permitting you to attend a white school. You would be the only black child at your elementary school and the only black child in the entire south to attend a white school.
Scared that there would be an upheaval, the federal district court judge ruled that you would be escorted by four federal marshalls. Upon your first day of class, you were met by an unruly mob yelling curses and throwing things at you. One lady threatened to poison you which caused you to only be allowed to eat food from home. The scariest instance was a lady approaching you with a black doll in a wooden coffin. I cannot imagine how you interpreted such terrifying altercations. How does a child take all of this hatred, how can someone deal with such scorn? No one attended school that day in protest to you studying there. Only one teacher had agreed to take you as their student, Mrs. Henry, who tried to lessen the impact of the situation for you. With her, and only her, you ate your lunch every single day and did not get to partake in the experience of making friends and playing during recess.
Being the first to integrate with a white school cost you emotionally. Kids alone cannot handle being lonely and outcasted from the group of their classmates. To have an entire community make it known that you are unwanted is bound to make one feel inferior. Doing simple things like using the restroom called for being escorted by the federal marshalls. The message that you were unwanted was at every turn. Your parents lost jobs in the turn of events and had to look over their shoulders. Such a cost for our people to be afforded the same right to education as white people are given. You fought for that.
You represent so much, so so much. A true icon to transformation and a symbol of standing up to the system! That picture of you at six years old walking with your head high, despite the militarization of having to be escorted is so monumental in not just African-American History but in American History as a whole. It will be the same spirit we embody as we work to take our place amongst all of the firsts.
Sincerely,
Kayla Mary Jane
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