“Come on, Jack, you’re gonna be late,” I hear my mom yell from the kitchen. I ran down the stairs, jumping down the last 4. My ankle hurt, but I was fine. I walked with haste over to the kitchen. “Hi, mom. Sorry for the delay,” I exclaimed, out of breath from all the sprinting, as I poured my cereal. I got my backpack and walked to “Central High School,” with some pep in my step. 

    I assumed it would just be a normal day at school, but as I arrived, I soon found out that this was not the case. A huge mob of people, press, and national guards flooded the front of the school. I knew what was going on right when I saw a group of 9 black kids trying to get in. A bunch of those segregation people were there. Not like I agreed with keeping kids of different races apart, but I never had the guts to stand against them. It was wrong, and they should know it, but something wrong going on in those minds of theirs just makes it hard for them to feel for other people. Recently, a law was passed that meant that the black students were allowed in the “white school.” I was late and getting through the crowd was not easy, but I made my way in eventually through the side door where nobody was blocking.

    I rang the bell and Ms. Davis let me in and marked my name in a book with the title that read “Tardy Slips.” She ripped one out, wrote the time, then sent me up to my classroom. For the next few days, the kids kept coming back, not able to get in. At the beginning, they were alone, but eventually, that escalated. 

    …

    I sat through all my boring classes, taking all my tests.  I was a pretty good student. Normally got between a B and an A on exams, but lately my mind has been clogged up thinking about all the horrible things going on in the world. I knew I had to do something, but I didn’t know when or even how to make my move. 

I kept on seeing the kids blocked out, and it aggravated me. I was so mad. Have you ever had that feeling where you just want to punch something? Well that’s how I felt; and it is not a feeling I wanted to have. I felt so much sympathy for these kids.

    …

It is September 23rd and the bell rang. I went home and decided to watch some television, considering I had already finished my homework. The first thing that came on the T.V. was the news. I saw President Eisenhower with a big headline underneath him which read, “Little Rock Citizens Block 9 Black Children from Entering.” I was shocked at how news of this situation had become so widespread. Even the president of the United States knew. I was glad that people were hearing about this. I heard that Eisenhower was taking over the National Guard to make them stop blocking the school under Governor Faubus’ command. Later that day, he also announced that he would be sending a military troop, arriving tomorrow. Apparently, he was sending one of the best army troops he had, the “Screaming Eagles.” I was so excited. At this point, it was 7pm. I went to the kitchen and helped my mom cook some beef stroganoff. I sat down at the table and told her all about it. She looked sad at first, but when I got into the good part of the story, she smiled. And when my mom smiles, she makes me smile; if she is happy, I am happy.

    I called some of my friends and asked if they heard the news. We hadn’t talked much about what was going on, but apparently, we were all following up for news reports, trying to get something good out of it. It warmed my heart to see everything going on. I stayed on the landline for a while, and when you’re talking to friends, time goes by a lot faster.

    I went to bed at around 11 realizing I needed some rest for school tomorrow.

    I woke up the next morning. Before I had gone to bed last night, I tuned in to the news for a second and was able to catch the fact that the troops were starting work on the 25th, only one more day! I drove to school in my family's new 55 Bel Air. Well, not new, it is a used car. But I just got my license last week, meaning I can drive it now. I cranked up the radio and listened to some music by Elvis. I arrived at school on time today. Today was normal, except for the fact that all my friends and I could talk about was tomorrow. It felt good to know that these kids were finally getting what they deserved. I was so caught up in joy, that I didn’t realize that maybe, even after they were in school, it wouldn’t be so smooth from there. What if the kids were harassed? I didn’t think that deep into the issue.  I was just focused on all the good stuff. In the last period, the teacher mentioned to us that there may be a different kind of commotion the next day. We knew what she meant.