calsfoundation@cals.org
May 17, 1979
Terrence James Roberts, a member of the Little Rock Nine (the nine African-American students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957), was able to meet Orval Faubus face to face on ABC’s Good Morning, America. He said, “I really feel it was a violation of public trust to practice your own personal policies of racism in that position. You endangered not only my life, but the lives of hundreds of other people, both black and white.” In 1999, President Bill Clinton presented the nation’s highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal, to the members of the Little Rock Nine. In 2009, Roberts published a memoir, Lessons from Little Rock.