30 August 2007

Thelma Mothershed Wair

Thelma Mothershed Wair (© AP Images)

Fifty years ago, black youngsters’ struggles to attend Little Rock’s Central High School during the 1957-1958 school year propelled the civil rights movement forward in the United States. (See “After Facing Mobs 50 Years Ago, Nine Go Home to Honors.”) The Little Rock Nine’s story is really nine stories.

Thelma Mothershed Wair had a heart condition as a teenager that restricted her physical activity. Others of the Little Rock Nine were inspired by her eagerness to attend Central High School, a massive structure comprising seven floors and 100 classrooms.

Wair said she did not encounter violence in the halls of Central. But she remembers being falsely accused in school by a white girl who said Wair kicked her. Wair said, “If I kicked you, I apologize,” and went home to view on the evening television news a report that Wair had kicked the girl.

More often, Wair said, she was ignored by her fellow students and even some teachers who sympathized with racists. She recalls one teacher who would not touch anything that Wair had touched. “If I had a slip to sign, she had me put it on her desk,” Wair said. “Then she would move it with her pencil, sign it, and let me pick it back up.”

Thelma Mothershed (© AP Images)

Wair became a teacher herself after earning undergraduate and master’s degrees from Southern Illinois University. She taught home economics for 28 years in the East St. Louis, Illinois, school system before retiring in 1994.

“I was determined to treat my kids equally,” she said. “I taught home economics. I taught white kids and helped them and graded them fairly.” At times, her students would learn she was “part of history” and express surprise. She would tell them, “Something historic happens every day” and share some stories, like the one about her parents sending a telegram to President Eisenhower thanking him for sending the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to protect the students. Her parents received an answer from the president that said he was proud of them for having the courage to send Wair to Central.

Wair, perhaps because she is a teacher, has enjoyed visiting high schools and universities around the country to tell her story, something several of the Little Rock Nine do. (Ernest Green, another of the Little Rock Nine, said his children considered him a “built-in show-and-tell” when they were growing up.) Wair has returned to live in Little Rock and finds it a better place for blacks than it was when she was a teenager.

In describing U.S. race relations, Wair said, “We’ve come a long way, baby, but we ain't there yet.” She quickly added, “We’re not there yet. I am a teacher. I don’t really speak like that!”

See Black History Month.

 Listen to Thelma Mothershed Wair talk about why she wanted to go to Central.