Terrence Roberts Revists Racial Tensions of 1957

  “In Little Rock, every possible decision had a racial component: where you could live, where you could go to school, whether you could work or not, whether you could get a bank loan… who you could marry. This made no sense to me, especially as I discovered there is no such thing as race, there are only biological differences,” said Dr. Roberts.
     As a youngster, segregation and racism mystified him and after much thinking he came to one conclusion: white people were crazy. But on further reflection he couldn’t find any indications of mental illness so he just followed the law and became “the best kid in town.”   
     But his obedience was radically overturned when at the age of 13 Dr. Roberts experienced an epiphany. He walked into Krystal Burger, a white-owned eatery, where he ordered a hamburger, malt and fries, as he always did.
     Back then Black men and women weren’t allowed to pass a certain point beyond the take-out area; nor could they sit down. In most buildings they had to use the back doors.
     But this time was different. He sat down. Time stopped. And as he explained it, even the burger patties flipped mid-air stood still. Every eye in the restaurant glared at him with the same message: “Boy, you better get some sense in your head.” Suddenly he was terrified and darted out of the restaurant.
     At that point he was ready to combat segregation head on.
     The doctrine of segregation had persisted for 335 years until the Brown v. Board of Education declared discrimination unconstitutional in 1954. The Little Rock school board finally abided by the law and in 1957 planned to desegregate the schools. Dr. Roberts was one of the many Black students who volunteered.
     In the fall of 1957, Dr. Roberts along with Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Jefferson Thomas and Carlotta Walls walked into Central High School.
     Dr. Roberts, a 15-year-old junior, had anticipated some antagonism but was not prepared for the violent white mobs and riots that followed.  
     Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas, sent in the National Guard to keep the eight teenagers from entering the high school. But Present Dwight Eisenhower responded by sending in the 101st Airborne to escort each student into the school and from class to class.
     The nine students’ courage was met with violence and abuse from white students and neighbors. Dr. Roberts felt safe only in the hallways because the guards could not go with him into the bathrooms, gym, cafeteria or classrooms.
     Outside of school he was most vulnerable. He was beat up daily while other white kids looked on. Some were afraid that they would get the same punishment if they defended him so they remained silent.
     Even at a young age, Dr. Roberts was a true scholar. Weekends saddened him because they tore him away from his love of school and learning. Yet he remembers how each day was a struggle to wake up and go to Central High School. Still he kept courage and was motivated by the rightness of his cause.
     “I knew from my own study that a lot of people had given their lives in this same struggle. For me, even as a kid, to say no would have been the same as turning around and spitting on the graves of those folk. I couldn’t do it — absolutely not,” he said.
     The following year, Gov. Faubus closed all public high schools in Little Rock to block segregation, an action pervasive in the 1950s. Indeed, Virgina’s Prince Edward County shut down every public school for four years.
     As a result, Dr. Roberts moved to Los Angeles with his family where he finished up his last year of high school. He went on to graduate from Cal State Los Angeles with a degree in sociology and to earn his master’s in social welfare from UCLA. He ultimately completed his Ph.D. in psychology at Southern Illinois University.
     One student asked Dr. Roberts if any of the white students who launched verbal and physical attacks on him had apologized. Only one had. A woman who tormented him as a student 40 years later told him she had abandoned her racist views; he forgave her.
     Students responded to Dr. Roberts’ outlook of forgiveness and peace that emphasized the necessity to accept all people even with their differences.
     “Everything he said was amazing and he sounded really open minded to everyone. The thing that impacted me the most was how he said race is in the mind. It’s really just genetics, it doesn’t really exist,” said senior Ella Nepales.
     In 1999 under the Clinton administration, each member of the Little Rock Nine was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest award, for active participation in the Civil Rights Movement.
     “It’s the best assembly we’ve ever had. I don’t think there was one single person in the gym who didn’t pay attention to what he was saying. He was so eloquent and inspiring. It’s hard to find the words,” said Rachel McDonald ’09.