Thelma Mothershed was born in Texas in 1940 without much hope. She had a congenital heart condition and had to be homeschooled. She was told she didn’t have long to live. Later, she was able to attend segregated schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, where her family had moved.
The year was 1957, three years after the U.S. Supreme Court desegregated schools in its Brown vs Board of Education decision. But that ruling had been slow to change things in the Jim Crow South. When Thelma and eight of her friends decided to transfer to what was an all-white school, they set in motion one of the nation’s pivotal moments in the Civil Rights movement.
The racist Governor Orval Faubus decided to use the State’s National Guard to block their entry into the high school. Angry mobs confronted them. For three weeks, her hope for a better education seemed to be lost as the National Guard remained in place.
President Dwight Eisenhower used federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine into school. They were shunned and just walking to their classes was an experience. But there was no physical harm. Maybe her hope for a good education would be realized.
Unfortunately, the Governor had other ideas. He closed all of Little Rock’s four high schools the next year. As she had done all her life, Thelma remained hopeful and completed high school with correspondence courses.
She went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. Following graduation, Thelma taught for 10 years and was a career education counselor for 18 years. She married in 1965 and had one son.
Thelma became a hope provider to others at the Juvenile Detention Center in St. Clair County in Illinois and a teacher of survival skills for the American Red Cross.
In 1999, Thelma and her eight classmates were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bill Clinton, also a former Governor of Arkansas. A lot has changed in America in just 42 years.
Thelma passed away in 2024 at the age of 83. The little girl who was not expected to live very long died of complications of multiple sclerosis.
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“I thought he meant to protect me. How wrong I was.”-Thelma Wair (reflecting on the actions of the Governor of Arkansas when they chose to enroll at an all-white school)