Here’s some sad news:
Jefferson Thomas, one of the so-called “Little Rock Nine,” the nine students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957, has died, according to Carlotta Walls LaNier, president of the group’s foundation. He was 67.
Thomas died of pancreatic cancer on Sunday, the Little Rock Nine Foundation said in a statement. He was living in Columbus, Ohio.
As a 15-year-old, Thomas was one of the nine African-American students who braved segregationist mobs to integrate the all-white school under the protection of military forces.A retired federal accountant for the Department of Defense, Thomas “had spent the last decade of his life doing community service, traveling to promote racial harmony and supporting young people in seeking higher education,” the foundation said. In 1999, he and the others received a Congressional Gold Medal from President Bill Clinton.
Good to see he got a good education, had a nice career, and remembered to give back and promote racial harmony. May he rest in peace and his memory live on.
Thanks, Mr. Thomas, for 52 years of service to your country and humankind.
Rest in peace.
R. I. P. Mr. Thomas.
Booman, thanks for posting this. For some reason, the following John Adams quote came to mind:
“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”
Despite all the attention it gets, I think we still underestimate the significance and magnitude of the civil rights movement, and of leaders (many of them so young!) like the Little Rock 9.
When President Obama talks about being part of the “Joshua generation”, he’s talking about the work of the second generation—to build a new foundation for a society that consolidates the liberating victories of Moses’ (or Jefferson Thomas’) generation.