Book Tells How Iconic Civil Rights Era Photo Changed Lives of 2 Women | PBS NewsHour | Dec. 15, 2011 | PBS: September 1957, Little Rock, Ark. Three years earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled segregated schools unconstitutional in the landmark Brown vs. the Board of Education decision.
Nine black students attempted to enroll at Little Rock's all-white Central High School. There, they were confronted by an angry mob and were turned back by a detachment of the Arkansas National Guard. As the students left, one of the more indelible images of the civil rights era was captured, two young girls, both 15, one black, one white, one resolutely ignoring the hate speech all around her, the other shouting racial epithets.
For more than 50 years, that picture has haunted both women, Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan. The intersections of their lives is the focus of a new book, "Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock," by David Margolick, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.
