Obituary: Thelma Mothershed-Wair

THELMA MOTHER-WAIR: 1940 – 2024

Thelma Mothershed-Wair, who has died aged 83, was one of nine black students who in 1957 had to be escorted by the 101st Airborne Division through a jeering crowd at Little Rock Central High during school desegregation in Arkansas, a watershed moment in history fight for civil rights.

If Thelma Mothershed was harassed less than the others, it was perhaps because she was noticeably frail, weighing six and a half stone, and was the shortest of the nine, only five feet tall. She was prone to mild heart attacks and was excused from physical education classes where the most severe beatings occurred.

Still, she was knocked face-first into the metal stairs. The threats over the phone were so constant that her parents had to take the phone off the phone. An effigy of a black student was burned on campus.

Thelma Mothershed was the top student in her class at her black high school, and worried parents tried to dissuade her from enrolling at Central High, fearing that the anxiety – and the stairs – might kill her, but she was adamant that she wanted the best education to become a teacher.

After a 1954 Supreme Court ruling that found school segregation unconstitutional, token black students were discreetly introduced in some Arkansas districts. However, white resistance mounted and the populist governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, risked losing the 1958 election unless he yielded to his segregationist base.

On September 4, 1957, Thelma Mothershed and her companions were herded into Central High by the Arkansas National Guard sent by Faubus. On Monday, September 23, they managed to enter the school, but the mob outside beat up the black reporters and the children were sent home for safety. Two days later, President Eisenhower sent 1,200 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division to press the issue.

The scenes outside Little Rock became a symbol of Southern resistance to civil rights. Some girls chanted, “Two, four, six, eight! We don’t want to integrate!” A famous photograph was taken of a white girl shouting at dignified, subdued black students; she later offered a public apology.