Minnijean Brown-Trickey, a key figure in one of the defining moments in the U.S. civil rights movement, draws upon her experiences as a member of the famed “Little Rock Nine” in a Lawrence University address that explores social change, diversity and the continuing battle against discrimination and racism.
Brown-Trickey presents “Return to Little Rock” Tuesday, April 19 at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Wriston Art Center on the Lawrence campus. A question-and-answer session and a reception with the speaker will follow her address. The event is free and open to the public.
In September, 1957, three years after the U.S. Supreme Court had declared public school segregation unconstitutional in its landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, Little Rock teenager Brown-Trickey turned the court’s ruling into action, walking through the front doors of Central High School and into American history books.
Under the watch of 1,200 armed soldiers, Brown-Trickey and eight other students, who collectively became known as the “Little Rock Nine,” helped desegregate previously all-white Central High School, bringing the injustices of segregation to the forefront of the American psyche in the process.
Expelled from Central High six months later for retaliating to the physical and verbal abuse she was subjected to, Brown-Trickey moved to New York, eventually graduating from New Lincoln High School. In the early 1960s, she moved to Canada and later armed with a master’s degree in social work, focused her career on working to combat the plight of Canada’s native communities.
She returned to the United States in 1999 to serve in the Clinton administration as deputy assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior where she oversaw diversity issues.
Her work as a champion for civil rights has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal in 1999, the Wolf Award and the Spingarn Medal, the highest award given by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in recognition of outstanding achievement by a black American.
Now living back in Arkansas again, Brown-Trickey is still active in civil rights and social equality issues and is completing her autobiography, tentatively entitled “Mixed Blessing: Living Black in North America.”
Brown-Trickey’s appearance is sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Multicultural Affairs Committee, the Alyssa Paul Maria Fund and the Lawrence history department.
