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Little Rock, 50 Years Later
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the day the "Little Rock Nine" integrated the city's best public high school. Elizabeth Eckford, the black woman pictured above, now works as a parole officer in Little Rock. I've always wondered what became of Hazel Bryan (now Massery), the sneering white girl in the famous photo. Google spit out this nice story from 1998 in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:
Hazel Massery drove Elizabeth Eckford home from Central High School in Little Rock on Sunday afternoon. It was no big deal, because the two women have become good friends since September 1997 -- as unlikely as that might seem four decades after their teen-age faces were frozen in a famous photograph epitomizing racial hatred.
[...]
The British TV crew also interviewed Indiana University journalism Professor Emeritus Will Counts. He took the 1957 Arkansas Democrat photo of an expressionless Eckford walking away from Central, hounded by a crowd of whites that included Massery (then Hazel Bryan) shouting, her face twisted in anger.
Counts arranged the Sept. 22, 1997, meeting of Eckford and Massery. His photograph of the two women smiling together ran on the front page of the next day's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. It came to symbolize the spirit of racial reconciliation that the 40th-anniversary Central desegregation commemoration was trying to project.
"It was the farthest thing from my mind that the photo shoot I set up would lead to a lasting friendship between Elizabeth and Hazel," Counts said Sunday. "I'd had a very difficult time persuading Elizabeth to even be photographed."Massery, who lives in a rural area of east Pulaski County, said the relationship "wasn't something I ever expected to develop the way it has. I had called Elizabeth in 1962 and apologized for my hateful action. But that was the only contact we'd had until Will got us together."
The two women met for lunch in October 1997 and have seen each other regularly since then. They enrolled jointly in a 12-week course on race relations and have maintained contact with others who took part in that workshop.
"Both of us being mothers, it turned out we have a lot to talk about," Massery says. "We've gotten very comfortable with each other. Elizabeth doesn't have a car, so I'm her chauffeur when we go to things together."
MORE: Better, longer, more recent Vanity Fair article on the photo here. Apparently, the two did reconcile, then drifted apart again after a series of public spats, and haven't spoken in years. Not quite the redemptive story it first appeared to be.
SIV|9.25.07 @ 11:11AM|#
Correctamundo beat me to it.
I see/hear mistakes like this all the time.
Evidence of mathematical or historical illiteracy? I'd say
both.
|9.25.07 @ 11:16AM|#
"It was the farthest thing from my mind that the photo shoot
I set up would lead to a lasting friendship between Elizabeth and
Hazel," Counts said Sunday. "I'd had a very difficult time
persuading Elizabeth to even be photographed."
So uh that photo was "set up"? With the other kids in the
background. Elizabeth with her head turned eyes down cast and books
clutched, is posing? As is Hazel, seemingly trailing after and
spewing hate? That's some photographer.
|9.25.07 @ 11:18AM|#
Counts arranged the Sept. 22, 1997, meeting of Eckford and
Massery. His photograph of the two women smiling together ran on
the front page of the next day's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. It came
to symbolize the spirit of racial reconciliation that the
40th-anniversary Central desegregation commemoration was trying to
project.
That photograph.
|9.25.07 @ 11:18AM|#
No Warren, he is talking about the arranged photo done in 1997, not the one taken in Little Rock in 1957.
Elemenope|9.25.07 @ 11:18AM|#
Warren - the posed photo is not the one featured above, but another depicting the reconciliation of the two many years later.
kid charlemagne|9.25.07 @ 11:20AM|#
Gee, I guess all southern white folks aren't hate-filled
racists, even ones who used to be. Surprise, surprise.
It occurs to me that 'Jena 6' is a pretty grotesque inversion of
'Little Rock 9'.
|9.25.07 @ 11:21AM|#
Warren
The paragraph you quoted refers to the 1997 meeting.
The photo that is shown above was not posed. It shows the original
event in 1957.
I'm actually rather impressed that Hazel Bryan called and
apologised to Elizabeth Eckford as early as 1962.
Her appearance in the original photo tells us one thing about her,
the apology another.
|9.25.07 @ 11:29AM|#
Elizabeth Eckford was interviewed two weeks ago on NPR and she indicated that she and Hazel Massery are no longer friends and are not in contact.
|9.25.07 @ 11:29AM|#
Unfortunately, this isn't quite the pat happy ending that it's
been portrayed as. The two no longer speak to one another. In fact,
it's not really a pat morality tale in one direction or another --
the truth is complicated, ambiguous, and mostly not pretty, with
some glimpses here and there of progress. Both women have painful
personal histories, although Eckford has obviously been dealt a far
worse hand.
Vanity Fair just published a long article that details the history
of these two women. Recommended reading. (Although fair warning to
kid charlemagne: stay away if you want to keep your smugness
intact.)
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/09/littlerock200709
Syloson of Samos|9.25.07 @ 11:30AM|#
Balko,
There have been a number of these sort of meetings of folks found
in famous Civil Rights photos.
|9.25.07 @ 11:57AM|#
"Vanity Fair just published a long article that details the
history of these two women. Recommended reading. (Although fair
warning to kid charlemagne: stay away if you want to keep your
smugness intact.)"
Enlightening article. Really juxtaposes the two individuals and
tells the tale of racism and reconcilia....hey look at Nicole
Kidman's huge rack!!.
roy edroso|9.25.07 @ 12:30PM|#
How come none of you have complained about Federal Government intervention in the affairs of Arkansas? Is the dream dead?
The Wine Commonsewer|9.25.07 @ 12:32PM|#
Interesting that so many folks commenting today didn't read
Balko's post. :-)
Ed, you win the thread......How old was Forrest Gump when he went
to 'Nam? By golly, that just might be him.
|9.25.07 @ 1:10PM|#
How come none of you have complained about Federal
Government intervention in the affairs of Arkansas? Is the dream
dead?
Well, I believe the federal government is perfectly within its
rights when its protecting individual rights against violations by
a state government.
The Wine Commonsewer|9.25.07 @ 1:13PM|#
Adam
Excellent link. Thank you.
Yes it is an excellent link and it is also the story that Radley
linked to in his post. :-)
|9.25.07 @ 1:40PM|#
TWC,
No, Radley added the link in his post after Adam provided it in the
comments
|9.25.07 @ 1:56PM|#
That second story's quite a downer. Why don't you go kick my dog now, Radley? Dick.
Nash|9.25.07 @ 2:06PM|#
"Adam
Excellent link. Thank you.
Yes it is an excellent link and it is also the story that Radley
linked to in his post. :-)"
He was referring to Nicole's bosom. That's why he said "link" and
not "article". They are not one and the same.
|9.25.07 @ 3:32PM|#
Hazel Massery drove Elizabeth Eckford home from Central High
School in Little Rock on Sunday afternoon. It was no big deal,
because the two women have become good friends since September
1997
That is so nice! It lifts the spirit. While I was just looking at
that picture, and the white gal's face (not for the first time), I
thought how susceptible we are to societal pressures, even when
they urge us in malevolent directions. Of course with government
behind those pressures, we have less choice, but whatever the case,
it's nice to see things change for the better.
|9.25.07 @ 3:52PM|#
Rick Barton,
I hate to break it to you this way, but from the Vanity Fair
article:
After a brief and well-photographed pseudo-reconciliation 10 years ago, the two are once more incommunicado, living only a few miles, and a cultural chasm, apart. While Elizabeth has spent the past decade coming out of a shell, Hazel has spent it going in.
|9.25.07 @ 4:37PM|#
de stijl,
Thank you, but I don't think that it should necessarily be called a
"pseudo-reconciliation" just cuz they had a subsequent falling out.
Also, the Vanity Fair article's account of the duration seems to be
at odds with that of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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