Keith Hill, 14, was certainly looking forward to Tuesday’s luncheon honoring the Little Rock Nine: It was, for him, a chance to attend an event at the Adam’s Mark Hotel.
“I’ve never been to a place like this before,” he said.
Fellow Manual High School student Linelle Whitmill, 15, said she knew what her counselor had told her: “I mean I know they went to school and they were spit on, right?”
What a difference 90 minutes can make.
Two of the nine students who made history 51 years ago when they entered the all-white Little Rock Central High School spoke to 600 people at the luncheon about what they had accomplished and what lies ahead.
The appearances of the Little Rock Nine this week in Denver are the group’s fifth since graduation and will raise money for a scholarship fund for the Iliff School of Theology’s Peace, Justice and Restoration program.
“I’m so thankful for what they did,” Linelle said afterward. “They’ve encouraged me to go to school more. I mean they fought for us to have the right to attend.
“I’m going to go home and tell my family about this,” she said.
That it has remained such a touchstone surprises Ernest Green, one of the Little Rock Nine who went on to become managing partner and vice president of Lehman Brothers in Washington, D.C.
“I never thought I’d spend the next 50 years talking about why I went to high school,” Green said.
Carlotta Walls LaNier, who lives in Englewood, said she hopes that their struggle inspires students to stay in school and get the education that could help them improve the world.
“I’m here to emphasize the importance of action on the smallest scale,” she said. “We might not be able to do much, but each of us can do something.”
Jenel Stelton-Holtmeier: 303-954-1661 or jsteltonholtmeier@denverpost.com
