KATV Channel 7 - The Spirit of Arkansas: New York Middle School stops in Little Rock during Civil RIghts Tour

New York Middle School stops in Little Rock during Civil RIghts Tour

By Matt Johnson

LITTLE ROCK - Dozens of New York seventh graders got the opportunity of a lifetime on Saturday as they met two women of the Little Rock Nine.

It's part of the "Freedom Is Not Free" tour that takes 50 students from KIPP Charter School in Harlem to different historical sites of the Civil Rights Movement.

I know what they have been through and I have experienced in my own life of what they feel in connection to what they've been through," said seventh grader Jacqueline Hamilton.

Minnijean Brown-Trickey and Elizabeth Eckford spoke to children about integrating Central High School in 1957 and also what freedom means to them.

"It's something really special about being able to come to Little Rock and see the steps of Central High School and actually meet the women and men who actually walked on those steps and paved the way," said Rai Bolden, director of arts for KIPP Charter School.

The students will soon head home to Harlem, but not without learning a life lesson in perseverance from the two women.

Seventh grader Lisandro Florencio says, "If the Little Rock (Nine) can, I can."

The tour also stops in Birmingham, Atlanta, and Memphis.