Little Rock Nine Slam Arkansas’ African American Studies Erasure

The Little Rock Nine changed everything the day they crossed the threshold of Little Rock Central Highschool in September of 1957. Under threat of death, the nine children integrated the Arkansas high school, demanding equal access to education for all.

Now, several surviving members of the Little Rock Nine are calling out another form of injustice, threatening to erase their hard-work decades earlier. Earlier this month, the Arkansas Department of Education announced that Advanced Placement African American Studies won’t count as an AP course credit. The decision will no doubt discourage schools from offering the course and students from taking it.

In an interview with NBC News, several members of the Little Rock Nine denounced the decision, calling it an attempt to “erase history.”

“I think the attempts to erase history is working for the Republican Party,” said Elizabeth Eckford, one of the nine children who integrated Little Rock Central in 1957. “They have some boogeymen that are really popular with their supporters.”

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The Arkansas Department of Education has said that they will be reviewing the course to make sure that it doesn’t teach Critical Race Theory, which was banned in March. As we’ve written about, CRT has essentially become a catch-all for teaching about race in the United States, and bans on CRT have been incredibly vague. It’s not totally clear how the state will determine whether teaching AP African American studies will violate their anti-CRT ban.

Terrence Roberts, who was physically threatened by a white student wielding a baseball bat, told NBC News that students need to know what they went through and why. “At a “bare minimum,” Roberts told NBC, “there shouldn’t be laws restricting their ability to learn.”