Little Rock Nine member Thomas dies
As teenager, he was at center of school desegregation fight
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Jefferson Thomas, who as a teenager was among nine black students to integrate a Little Rock high school in the nation’s first major battle over school segregation, has died. He was 67.
Thomas died Sunday in Ohio of pancreatic cancer, according to a statement Monday from Carlotta Walls LaNier, who also enrolled at Central High School in 1957 and is president of the Little Rock Nine Foundation.
The integration fight was a first real test of the federal government’s resolve to enforce a 1954 Supreme Court order outlawing racial segregation in the nation’s public schools. After Gov. Orval Faubus sent National Guard troops to block Thomas and eight other students from entering Central High, President Eisenhower ordered in the Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
Soldiers stood in the school hallways and escorted each of the nine students as they went from classroom to classroom.
Each of the Little Rock Nine received Congressional Gold Medals shortly after the 40th anniversary of their enrollment. President Bill Clinton presented the medals in 1999 to Thomas, LaNier, Melba Patillo Beals, Minnijean Brown Trickey, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Terrence Roberts and Thelma Mothershed Wair.
Clinton lamented Thomas’ death in a statement he issued Monday, calling him “a true hero, a fine public servant, and profoundly good man.”
“America is a stronger, more diverse, and more tolerant nation because of the life he lived and the sacrifices he made,” he said.
Thomas played a number of sports and was on the track team at Dunbar Junior High, but others had little to do with him once he entered Central, the state’s largest high school.
“I had played with some of the white kids from the neighborhood,” Thomas said. “I went up to Central High School after school and we played basketball and touch football together. I knew some of the kids.
“Eventually, I ran into them … and they were not at all happy to see me. One of them said, ‘Well I don’t mind playing basketball or football with you or anything. You guys are good at sports. Everybody knows that, but you’re just not smart enough to sit next to me in the classroom.’ ”