September 26, 1903

Grace Lorch, a professor of mathematics at Philander Smith College in Little Rock during the 1950s, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. While in Little Rock, Lorch and her husband, Lee, were neighbors to Daisy and L. C. Bates and were active in the local NAACP. During the ongoing desegregation crisis at Central High School, the Lorches had a cross burned in their yard, and they were later investigated by Attorney General Bruce Bennett. Grace Lorch famously intervened when a white mob surrounded Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine, at a bus stop near the school.