Rachel Hampton

Rachel Hampton

The response I had to this picture may be the entire reason I decided to become a history major as an undergraduate at NCSU. I first saw it in a textbook during my first semester at college, and the deeply emotional response I had to it convinced me I needed to learn as much as I could about the period of time in American history when the South was a racially charged and separated area. I wanted to learn how a culture could become so enveloped in an emotion like hate and an ideology like racism. What events led up to this girl, whose named turned out to be Elizabeth Eckford of the Little Rock Nine, to undergo this kind of anger just for trying to get an equal education? What kind of culture and values did people in the South have during this time? How could something as simple as the color of one’s skin conjure up the kind of rage you see in the young white woman’s face directly behind Eckford? I knew after seeing this picture that I needed to study the history of the civil rights movement, and then that lead me to learning about the south’s long history of racial violence even after slavery ended. Before this picture I only knew a small amount about what life was really like for African Americans in the South in the early to mid 20th century, but now, mostly because of this photograph, I sought out books and classes on this period in history. It led me to understand the often times brutal and unfair world we live in.

Hampton, Rachel

2013-03-12

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