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Focus Magazine

Focus Magazine

September/October ()

Then and Now: The Impact of the Little Rock Nine

A Interview with Ernie Green

by jcpes

Fifty years have passed since nine determined black high school students braved racial epithets and threats of violence from angry white residents of Little Rock, Arkansas to desegregate Central High School. The determination of these nine young men and women forced President Eisenhower
to send in federal troops to protect them, conveying a message to other southern school districts that the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education would be enforced. Ernie Green was the lone senior among the nine, and he became the first black student to graduate from Central High School. He went on to a successful and prestigious career, serving as director of the A. Philip Randolph Education Fund, assistant secretary in the Labor Department under President Jimmy Carter, a partner at Green and Herman, and owner of E. Green and Associates. He has been with Lehman Brothers since 1987. He was interviewed by FOCUS magazine about his recollections of the desegregation of Central High School and its meaning today.

A Interview with Ernie Green Download this article

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Did You Know?

In 2006, blacks made up 22 percent of the U.S. Army overall, but comprised only 12.3 percent of the officer corps and between seven and eight percent of the combat arms officers. The combat arms branches represent the principal pipeline to the Army's senior ranks. In 1990, blacks were 29.1 percent of the Army, but only 11 percent of the officer corps.

Source: Lt. Colonel Anthony D. Reyes, Strategic Options for Managing Diversity in the U.S. Army, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, June 2006