Imagining a book, then pitching it, can be as daunting as writing the book itself. Sometimes, though, things fall magically into place. That was what happened when I wandered into the Mobil station–turned–museum across the street from Little Rock Central High School in the spring of 1999 and first saw the poster on the wall of Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Massery—standing alongside each other, smiling. Could such a thing really have come to pass? And how? Therein lay a tale. And, as it turned out, a book.
It took me a dozen years to do it, and I encountered many helpful people along the way. They include Annie Abrams, Charlene Jackson Allen, Ethel Ambrose, Alice Lorch Bartels, Martha Boveia, Gene Bowman, Max Brantley, the Hon. Wiley Branton, Jr., Ralph Brodie, Phyllis Brown, Linda Caillouet, Cyrus Cassels, Cathy Collins, Dr. Helen Cooks, Bill Corker, Vivian Counts, Eric Engberg, Annette Gilbert, Anna Eckford Goynes, Grace Guggenheim, Peggy Harris, Steele Hays, the Hon. Marion Humphrey, George Iggers, Bill Jersey, Heather Jurgensen, Michael Krenn, Michael Leahy, Linda Lee, Judith Leonard, Johanna Lewis, Mike Maddell, Antoine Massery, Josh McHughes, Laura Miller, Angela Park, Ken Reinhardt, Curtis Ricks, Nancy Rousseau, Mildred Roxborough, Skip Rutherford, Charles Sawrie, Jack Schnedler, David Shipler, David Smith, Professor Valerie Steele, Jeff Steinberg, Steve Stevens, the Rev. Hezekiah Stewart, the late Mary Ann Burleson Thompson, Morris Thompson, Spirit Trickey, Robin Ward, Linda Wells, Lynn Whittaker, Emogene Wilson, and Nina Zagat.
I was assisted selflessly by people at several research institutions: Anne Prichard, formerly the librarian in special collections at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville; Rhonda Stewart at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies; Linda Pine of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Jane Hooker and Linda McDowell of the Arkansas History Commission; the ever-helpful Charles Niles at the Howard Gotlieb Center at Boston University; Michael Cogswell and Ricky Riccardi of the Louis Armstrong House Museum; Anna St. Onge of the Clara Thomas Archives at York University; and the kind workers in the microfilm rooms of the Schomburg Branch of the New York Public Library and the Mother Ship on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. As always, I am indebted to Jeff Roth, the vigilant protector of the precious New York Times morgue. I also want to thank Skip Isaacs, who miraculously managed to find—sitting in a box at the back of a closet in his home—the notes of his late, remarkable father’s 1957 trip to Little Rock and Augusta, Arkansas.
Despite their entirely understandable interview fatigue, eight of the Little Rock Nine agreed to speak with me, and I am grateful to them all: in addition to Elizabeth Eckford herself, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Terrence Roberts, the late Jefferson Thomas, Thelma Mothershed Weir, and, particularly, Minnijean Brown Trickey. As I have told Minnijean, my biggest mistake in this entire enterprise was failing to write a separate book simultaneously on her, for she is equally deserving of one; I look forward to reading her forthcoming memoir. Most of the other players in this drama are gone, but I was fortunate to catch up with Lee Lorch, for whom the epochal events in Little Rock were but one more stop in a remarkable journey, and Larry Lubenow, the man who prompted Louis Armstrong to weigh in on the schools crisis. I’m thankful to those reporters who covered the story and shared with me their memories: Jerry Dhonau, Gene Foreman, Farnsworth Fowle, the late Walter Lister, Ray Moseley, Moses Newson, Roy Reed, and Claude Sitton. Luckily, I got to know, and to listen to, Will Counts a bit before his death in 2001. He was a lovely man. I hope I have done him justice here.
But for Vanity Fair, on whose website a shorter version of this story first appeared, Elizabeth and Hazel would never have happened. I’m grateful to Graydon Carter, Doug Stumpf, and Mary Flynn for making that possible. Jonathan Brent of Yale University Press backed this book from the beginning; when he moved on to new challenges, it was my great fortune that Ileene Smith inherited it, and me. Her careful editing, intelligence, and encouragement buoyed me. Together with Sarah Miller, John Palmer, Dan Heaton, Mary Valencia, and Maureen Noonan, they have made this book as beautiful as I had always imagined it would be. Also at the Press, Jay Cosgrove, Heather D’Auria, and Brenda King have done everything they could to ensure that this book finds its audience.
Brian Chilson, Phyllis Colazzo, Brad Cook, Bay Fitzhugh, Laura Harris, Jeff McAdory, and Paul Robert Walker helped with the pictures. Michael Henry Adams, David Bray, Elizabeth Cohen, the late Neal Hartman, Elizabeth Jacoway, Phil and Ruthe Kaplan, Joel Klein, Andrew Margolick, Gert Margolick, Jonathan Margolick, Joseph Margolick, Linda Monk, Grif Stockley, and Tim Zagat all read the book in draft, offering suggestions, spotting mistakes. The chefs at Sims Barbecue fed me during my many trips to Little Rock.
Rhonda Chahine has been a constant source of love, support, and good judgment throughout my work. I want, too, to thank the remarkable Lawrence Schiller, who took the contemporary portraits of Elizabeth and Hazel (and then, with his son Howard Schiller, designed an elegant cover around them). Beyond his uncanny storytelling instincts, Larry is a treasured and loyal friend; his encouragement lifted my spirits and improved this book. Most important, I want to thank Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan Massery. This story is painful for them both, and neither was eager to revisit it. I’m more grateful than I can express that each of them—in her own way, at her own pace—took me into her confidence, then endured endless hours of interviews, invariably followed by requests for still more. Neither sought special treatment; each asked only that her story be honestly told. I’ve done my best to comply. A dear and tenderhearted friend once faulted an earlier project of mine for having had no heroes. In this book, I was blessed with two.
David Margolick
New York, March 2011