Learn the story of the first 9 African American students to attend the all white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Learn how powers of local & national government battled integration three years after the landmark, Brown v the Board of Education of Topeka ruled segregation unconstitutional. Hear from students, Ernest Green, the first African American to graduate from Central High School, and Melba Pattillo Beals, PhD, who penned her inspirational memoirs in her bestselling books Warriors Don’t Cry, March Forward Girl, and I Will Not Fear. Learn why this is a Moment That Mattered.

Quick Ideas for Using the Video with Students:
1. Use the video as part of your students’ study of America’s civil rights movement or other events/topics related to segregation and discrimination. What did they know about the Little Rock 9 before viewing the video? What do they see as the impact of that event on American history?
2. Use the video as a starting point to your study of the Civil Rights Movement. Discuss the events and its impacts and use student discussion to lead in to more study of what occurred prior to this moment and what it occurred after as the Civil Rights Movement progressed. Develop an activity that has students report on other people/persons who were a “first” in the Civil Rights and what societal changes may have occurred as a result. What was the significance of the “first”?