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HARDtalk

Elizabeth Eckford

Duration: 30 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC News EuropeLatest broadcast: on BBC News Africa

In September 1957 nine African American students, including Elizabeth Eckford, entered the all-white Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas, thereby breaking for the first time the racial segregation barrier in US schools. They became known as the Little Rock Nine. Two years earlier the US Supreme Court had ruled segregation in schools to be unconstitutional. The first time Elizabeth Eckford tried to enter Little Rock Central High she was turned away and the image of her surrounded by a hostile crowd of local white people is one of the most famous photographs of the American civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 60s. HARDtalk is at her family home in Little Rock from where she left to attend Central High more than 60 years ago. Does she regret her central role in a famous chapter of recent American history? Show less

Contributors

Presenter:
Stephen Sackur
Interviewed Guest:
Elizabeth Eckford

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