Born: 11 September 1941, United States
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Minnijean Brown
This biography is shared with kind permission from the Central Arkansas Library System’s Encyclopedia of Arkansas, and was written by the National Park Service. All rights reserved. This entry was added in 2026; please check the Encyclopedia of Arkansas page for the most up-to-date version.
Minnijean Brown Trickey made history as one of the Little Rock Nine, the nine African American students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The world watched as they braved constant intimidation and threats from those who opposed desegregation of the formerly all-white high school.
Minnijean Brown, the eldest of four children of Willie and Imogene Brown, was born on September 11, 1941, in Little Rock (Pulaski County). Her mother was a homemaker and nurse’s aid during the crisis, and her father was an independent mason and landscaping contractor. She is the sister of the late Bobby Brown, who was the president of Black United Youth (BUY) in Arkansas in the late 1960s.
Although all of the Nine experienced verbal and physical harassment during the 1957–58 academic year at Central, Trickey was first suspended, and then expelled, for retaliating against the daily torment: specifically, she called one of her tormenters “white trash.” On February 17, 1958, she moved to New York and lived with Drs. Kenneth B. and Mamie Clark, African-American psychologists whose social science research formed the basis for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) argument in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case, which held that segregation harmed the self-esteem of African-American children. She graduated from New York’s New Lincoln School, a private progressive school in Manhattan, in 1959.
Brown married Roy Trickey, a fisheries biologist, on September 21, 1967; they have six children. She attended Southern Illinois University and majored in journalism. She later moved to Canada with her husband, who was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, where she received a BSW in Native Human Services from Laurentian University and an MSW in social work from Carleton University in Ontario, Canada. The couple divorced in the mid-1980s.
Trickey is a social activist and has worked on behalf of peacemaking, environmental issues, developing youth leadership, diversity education and training, cross-cultural communication, and gender and social justice advocacy. She served in the Clinton administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Workforce Diversity at the Department of the Interior from 1999 to 2001. She has taught social work at Carleton University in Ottawa Canada and in various community colleges in Canada.
Trickey worked for an interactive traveling trip called Sojourn to the Past, a ten-day interactive history experience through selected U.S. states with 100 high school students learning about the civil rights movement. She was also a guest lecturer at Arkansas State University (ASU) in Jonesboro (Craighead County). She was the recipient of the Mary Gay Shipley Writing Fellowship, as a part of ASU’s Heritage Studies PhD program. She is also the subject of a documentary, Journey to Little Rock: The Untold Story of Minnijean Brown Trickey.
Trickey is the recipient of numerous awards for her community work for social justice, including the Lifetime Achievement Tribute by the Canadian Race Relations foundation and the International Wolf Award for contributions to racial harmony. Trickey, along with the other Little Rock Nine and Daisy Bates, was awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal by the NAACP in 1958. In 1999, President Bill Clinton presented the nation’s highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal, to the members of the Little Rock Nine. After living in Little Rock for several years, she returned to Canada in early 2012. Several items from her time at Central, including her suspension notice, are held in the collections of the National Museum of American History.
For additional information:
Andrews, Kehinde.”Minnijean Brown-Trickey: The Teenager Who Needed an Armed Guard to Go to School.” The Guardian, November 26, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/26/minnijean-brown-trickey-little-rock-nine (accessed July 11, 2023).
Bates, Daisy. The Long Shadow of Little Rock. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1986.
Beals, Melba Pattillo. Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Desegregate Little Rock’s Central High School. New York: Washington Square Books, 1994.
Collins, Janelle. “‘It Was a Form of Creativity, Our Going to Central’: An Interview with Minnijean Brown Trickey.” Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies 36 (August 2005): 90–98.
Harvey, Lucy. “A Member of the Little Rock Nine Discusses Her Struggle to Attend Central High.” Smithsonian.com, April 22, 2016. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/member-little-rock-nine-discusses-her-struggle-attend-central-high-180958870/?no-ist (accessed July 11, 2023).
Jacoway, Elizabeth. “Not Anger but Sorrow: Minnijean Brown Trickey Remembers the Little Rock Crisis.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 64 (Spring 2005): 1–26.
Jacoway, Elizabeth, and C. Fred Williams, eds. Understanding the Little Rock Crisis: An Exercise in Remembrance and Reconciliation. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1999.
Roy, Beth. Bitters in the Honey: Tales of Hope and Disappointment across Divides of Race and Time. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1999.
Thompson, Rob, director. Journey to Little Rock: The Untold Story of Minnijean Brown Trickey. Documentary film. Canada: North East Productions, 2001.
Trickey, Minnijean Brown, and Phyllis Brown. “StoryCorps: Interview with Minnijean Brown Trickey and Phyllis Brown.” October 15, 2006. Audio at Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art, Central Arkansas Library System: Minnijean Brown Trickey and Phyllis Brown Interview (accessed July 11, 2023).
The following is republished from the National Park Service. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
The End of Legal Segregation
In 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court decision outlawed segregation in public education. Little Rock School District Superintendent Virgil Blossom devised a plan of gradual integration that would begin at Central High School in 1957. The school board called for volunteers from all-black Dunbar Junior High and Horace Mann High School to attend Central.
Prospective students were told they would not be able to participate in extracurricular activities if they transferred to Central such as football, basketball, or choir. Many of their parents were threatened with losing their jobs, and some students decided to stay at their own schools.
“[Blossom said] you’re not going to be able to go to the football games or basketball games. You’re not going to be able to participate in the choir or drama club, or be on the track team. You can’t go to the prom. There were more cannots…” Carlotta Walls LaNier, Little Rock Nine
“When my tenth-grade teacher in our Negro school said there was a possibility of integration, I signed up. We all felt good. We knew that Central High School had so many more courses, and dramatics and speech and tennis courts and a big, beautiful stadium.” Minnijean Brown, Little Rock Nine, to Look (June 24, 1958)
The First Day of School
On September 3, 1957, the Little Rock Nine arrived to enter Central High School, but they were turned away by the Arkansas National Guard. Governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard the night before to, as he put it, “maintain and restore order…” The soldiers barred the African American students from entering.
“I was not prepared for what actually happened.” Elizabeth Eckford, Little Rock Nine
“I thought he [Faubus] was there to protect me. How wrong I was.” Thelma Mothershed Wair, Little Rock Nine
The students arrived at Central alone on the first day. By prior arrangement, they gathered at the 16th Street entrance with several local ministers who accompanied them. Elizabeth Eckford arrived at the other end of the block by herself. She was met by a mob screaming obscenities and threats, chanting, “Two, four, six, eight, we ain’t gonna integrate!”
“We didn’t know that his [Faubus’] idea of keeping the peace was keeping the blacks out.” Jefferson Thomas, Little Rock Nine
More than two weeks went by before the Little Rock Nine again attempted to enter Central High School. On September 23, 1957, the Little Rock Nine entered the school. Outside, rioting broke out and the Little Rock police removed the Nine for their safety.
The President Becomes Involved
On September 24, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered units of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division -the “Screaming Eagles”- into Little Rock and federalized the Arkansas National Guard. In a televised speech delivered to the nation, President Eisenhower stated, “Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of the courts.”
On September 25, 1957, under federal troop escort, the Little Rock Nine made it inside for their first full day of school. The 101st Airborne left in October and the federalized Arkansas National Guard troops remained throughout the year.
Inside the School
The Little Rock Nine had assigned guards to walk them from class to class. The guards could not accompany the students inside the classrooms, bathrooms, or locker rooms. They would stand outside the classrooms during class time. In spite of this, the Little Rock Nine endured verbal and physical attacks from some of their classmates throughout the school year. Although some white students tried to help, few white students befriended any of the Nine. Those who did received similar treatment as the Nine, such as hate mail and threats.
One of the Little Rock Nine, Minnijean Brown, was suspended in December for dropping chili on some boys after they refused to let her pass to her seat in the cafeteria. She was later expelled in February 1958 for calling a girl who had hit her with a purse “white trash.” After Brown’s expulsion, students passed around cards that read, “One Down, Eight to Go.”
Brown finished high school at New Lincoln School in New York City, while living with Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark. The Clarks were the social psychologists whose “doll test” work demonstrated for the Supreme Court in Brown that racial prejudice and segregation caused African-American children to develop a sense of inferiority.
The remaining eight students completed the school year at Central. Senior Ernest Green was the first African American student to graduate from Central High School.
“It’s been an interesting year. I’ve had a course in human relations first hand.” Ernest Green, Little Rock Nine, to Life (June 1958)
The Aftermath
The following year, the city’s high schools were closed to prevent further desegregation while the NAACP continued to pursue the legal case to integrate Little Rock’s schools.
When the schools reopened, Carlotta Walls and Jefferson Thomas returned to Central and graduated in 1960. Thelma Mothershed received her diploma from Central High School by taking correspondence courses to complete her studies.
The rest of the Little Rock Nine completed their high school educations at different schools. The Little Rock Nine have received numerous accolades and awards, from the renowned NAACP Spingarn Medal to the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal.
Minnijean Brown Trickey graduated from New Lincoln High School in 1959. She received a Bachelor of Social Work degree in Native Human Services from Laurentian University and a Master of Social Work degree at Carleton University, in Ontario Canada. Brown Trickey has worked in various settings committed to peacemaking, sex and social justice advocacy, youth leadership, diversity education and training, cross-cultural communication, and environmental issues. She served in Clinton Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Workforce Diversity in the Department of the Interior. Brown Trickey continues to work as a teacher, writer, and motivational speaker; she is the subject of the critically acclaimed documentary, Journey to Little Rock: The Untold Story of Minnijean Brown Trickey.