The Legacy of Thelma Mothershed Wair
Thelma Mothershed Wair, a courageous figure in American history and one of the nine Black students who became known as the Little Rock Nine, passed away on Saturday at a hospital in Little Rock. She was 83 years old. The news of her death was confirmed by her sister, Grace Davis, although no specific cause was provided.
In the autumn of 1957, these nine brave students enrolled at Little Rock Central High School, marking a pivotal moment in the struggle for civil rights and the first significant test of school integration following the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which declared that “separate but equal” educational systems were unconstitutional.
Reflecting on that tumultuous time in a 2004 oral history interview with the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Mrs. Mothershed Wair recounted her shock upon seeing Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus on television, calling for the National Guard to prevent the students from entering the school on their first day. She remembered thinking, “I thought he meant to protect me,” only to realize how mistaken she was.
On that fateful first day, the students confronted a hostile and angry mob, filled with racism and hatred, as the National Guard soldiers blocked their entry into the school. Mrs. Mothershed Wair vividly recalled noticing cars with out-of-state license plates parked near the school, a sign of the widespread attention the events were garnering.
For three long weeks, Governor Faubus openly defied the federal desegregation order, escalating tensions in Little Rock and igniting a significant crisis. It was not until President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened, ordering federal troops to escort the students into the school on September 25, that the situation began to change. “The army has come into our city to put nine kids in a school?” she recalled thinking, grappling with the absurdity of it all. “Did that make any sense? Was this not America?”
With the 101st Airborne Division accompanying them, Mrs. Mothershed Wair described how the hostile crowds that had once blocked their path to education “parted like when Moses stretched out his staff at the Red Sea,” a powerful testament to the extraordinary courage displayed by the Little Rock Nine in the face of adversity.