Thelma mothershed little rock nine biography
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The checkbook and check receipts included in Box 2 of the collection provide supplementary documentation of how the funds were distributed to the different academic institutions attended by the Little Rock Nine. “LR Nine Member Celebrated.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, October 27, 2024, pp. The couple had one son.
Thelma Wair also worked at the Juvenile Detention Center of the St.
Clair County Jail in St. Clair County, Illinois, and as an instructor of survival skills for women at the American Red Cross Shelter for the homeless. White people were throwing objects, spitting on them and shouting threats to discourage the Black students from entering and attending school with white students.
It was always, I'm kind, I'm loving, I'm humble,” Wyvetter Younge School of Excellence Principal Kim Jones-Riley said. Her sister Gracie Davis confirmed to the Associated Press that she died in an Arkansas hospital after dealing with complications from multiple sclerosis.
“She did not let her past define who she was. Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Desegregate Little Rock’s Central High School.
She had everything on the table. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1999.
Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site Visitor Center. Mothershed graduated from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1964 with a BA in home economics. 2 Night is a curious child, wandering Between... In 1999, President Bill Clinton presented the nation’s highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal, to the members of the Little Rock Nine.
Wair later relocated to Little Rock (Pulaski County) and lived there until her death on October 19, 2024.
She taught home economics in the East St. Louis school system for twenty-eight years before retiring in 1994.
Mothershed married Fred Wair on December 26, 1965. “It was just like you became a part of that family.”
Mothershed-Wair graduated from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and received a master’s degree from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
I don't recall we didn't do any sewing, but they were over there learning how to cook meals and sew,” she said. Two weeks later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered federal troops to escort the students into the school.
In 2004, Mothershed-Wair said in an oral history video interview with the National Park Service that when the troops left the high school, students would taunt them, staff would not allow them to perform in class programs, and a white girl told the principal that Mothershed-Wair kicked her, though she did not.
Jones-Riley met the civil rights pioneer as a child through Jones-Riley’s mother, who was also a teacher in the East St.
Louis district. She is best known as one of the Little Rock Nine, the name given to the students who first integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957.
Her father was a psychiatric aide at the Veterans Hospital, and her mother was a homemaker. In 1989, the East St. Louis chapter of the Top Ladies of Distinction and the early childhood/pre-kindergarten staff of District 189 honored her as an Outstanding Role Model.
In 1999, President Clinton presented the Congressional Gold Medal to the members of the Little Rock Nine.