06/26/2011 - by Chuck Monan, Preaching Minister

Given its reputation as a tolerant, progressive Southern city it was surprising to many when the 1957 school desegregation crisis in Little Rock exploded into violence and resulted in President Eisenhower sending in the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army. Little Rock has carried this stigma ever since, a stigma that is largely captured by one photo.

Anyone who has seen the picture can never forget it.  Elizabeth Eckford had just been refused entry into Little Rock Central High School, and she was making her way through a crowd of angry whites.  The National Guardsmen blocked the path of Eckford and eight other black students who tried to attend the first day of classes, and the mob cursed, railed, spat and shouted threats at Eckford and the rest of the “Little Rock Nine.”  Hazel Bryan was part of the crowd that day.  Her face grimaced in hate, she screamed at Eckford, who silently walked through the crowd.  When a photographer captured this ugly scene on film, the two 15-year-old girls became symbols: Eckford as a picture of the civil rights movement, and Bryan representing the face of racial hatred.


Hazel Bryan Massery (background, center); Elizabeth Eckford (foreground, right).

Forty years later, the photographer who snapped the photo of the first meeting between Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan Massery arranged a reunion.  On September 22, 1997, the two women met again.  Hazel Massery had apologized to Eckford 35 years ago, but wanted to see her again after that terrible time in 1957.  They visited, smiled, and posed for pictures.  They put the past behind them, and showed that they were no longer enemies.

Hazel Massery was the only white person to publicly come forward and apologize for the hatred directed at blacks during the desegregation crisis.  Certainly there are others who need to follow her example.  Jesus taught “unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:3).  When we have sinned, the only recourse is to repent.  Denying our sin, ignoring our sin, explaining away our sin -- these do nothing to bring about forgiveness and healing.  It takes honesty and courage to do what Hazel Massery did.  After his sordid episode with Bathsheba, David turned in repentance to the Lord:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. (Psa. 51:1-4)