Two boys in Little Rock get caught up in the storm of the struggle over public school integration.

The memorable and courageous story of nine teenagers in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 who helped "crack the wall" of segregation is clearly presented in this inspiring story.

Examines the nine students who tried to integrate at an all-white school.

Nine high school students in Little Rock, Arkansas were at the heart of the battle to integrate schools in the late 1950s. Many places in the south were slow to change, but things got especially heated in Little Rock, Arkansas. Engage your most struggling readers in grades 4-7¾with Red Rhino Nonfiction! This new series features high-interest topics in every content area. Visually appealing full-color photographs and illustrations, fun facts, and short chapters keep emerging readers focused. Written at a 1.5-1.9 readability level, these books include pre-reading comprehension questions and a 20-word glossary for comprehension support.

The names Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan Massery may not be well known, but the image of them from September 1957 surely is: a black high school girl, dressed in white, walking stoically in front of Little Rock Central High School, and a white girl standing directly behind her, face twisted in hate, screaming racial epithets. This famous photograph captures the full anguish of desegregation--in Little Rock and throughout the South--and an epic moment in the civil rights movement.In this gripping book, David Margolick tells the remarkable story of two separate lives unexpectedly braided together. He explores how the haunting picture of Elizabeth and Hazel came to be taken, its significance in the wider world, and why, for the next half-century, neither woman has ever escaped from its long shadow. He recounts Elizabeth's struggle to overcome the trauma of her hate-filled school experience, and Hazel's long efforts to atone for a fateful, horrible mistake. The book follows the painful journey of the two as they progress from apology to forgiveness to reconciliation and, amazingly, to friendship. This friendship foundered, then collapsed--perhaps inevitably--over the same fissures and misunderstandings that continue to permeate American race relations more than half a century after the unforgettable photograph at Little Rock. And yet, as Margolick explains, a bond between Elizabeth and Hazel, silent but complex, endures.

“It was one of those periods that you got through, as opposed to enjoyed. It wasn’t an environment that . . . was nurturing, so you shut it out. You just got through it. You just took it a day at a time. You excelled if you could. You did your best. You felt as though the eyes of the community were on you.”—Glenda Wilson, East Side Junior High Much has been written about the historical desegregation of Little Rock Central High School by nine African American students in 1957. History has been silent, however, about the students who desegregated Little Rock’s five public junior high schools—East Side, Forest Heights, Pulaski Heights, Southwest, and West Side—in 1961 and 1962. The First Twenty-Five gathers the personal stories of these students some fifty years later. They recall what it was like to break down long-standing racial barriers while in their early teens—a developmental stage that often brings emotional vulnerability. In their own words, these individuals share what they saw, heard, and felt as children on the front lines of the civil rights movement, providing insight about this important time in Little Rock, and how these often painful events from their childhoods affected the rest of their lives.

Retells in comics format the story of the brave African American students who faced violent opposition when they integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September, 1957.