BC High The Jesuit High School of Boston

Terrence Roberts, one of the Civil Rights Movement’s Little Rock Nine, spoke to hundreds of BC High students today on his experiences with racial integration and his views on the role of race in society.

 

“We knew that this was not about ourselves,” said Roberts referring to his enrollment in an all-white, racially segregated high school. “This was about an idea that was bigger than all of us.”

 

In 1957, a then-fifteen-year-old Roberts and eight other African-American students enrolled at Little Rock Central High School. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus deployed the National Guard to prevent the students from entering the school. “We showed up – nine black kids – and the governor decided this wasn’t going to happen,” said Roberts. “So, he sent in the national guard to keep us out. And they did.”

 

It was only after President Dwight Eisenhower sent the United States Army to the school that the students were allowed to enter. But Robert’s difficulties continued. He told the crowd in the Gregory E. Bulger Center for the Performing Arts that he and the other students had to sign affidavits stating that they would not take part in any school activities. “We were banned from playing on sports teams, from clubs, drama, choir. We couldn’t do any of that.”

 

Roberts recounted name calling, insults, and threats. He recalled the scene after one of the black students was expelled from the school. “There were these little cards around the school the next day saying, ‘one down, eight to go.’ But my mother told me that I was only going to be on this planet for a short period of time and that wasting your life force on hate will decrease your quality of life and number of years. You can’t worry about what other people think. You have to focus on being the best ‘you’ you can be.” He said it was that notion that helped him get through the difficult time.

 

During his question and answer session, Roberts discussed the role of race in society today, the status of public education, and the historical significance of his actions in Little Rock. The eight living members of the Little Rock Nine remain close and serve as board members of the Little Rock Nine Foundation.

 

Roberts a PhD in Psychology from Southern Illinois University, an MS in Social Welfare from the University of California, and a BA in Sociology from California State University. He is CEO of Terrence J. Roberts & Associates, a management consultant firm devoted to fair and equitable practices, maintains a private psychology practice, and lectures and presents workshops and seminars on a wide variety of topics.

 

He is the recipient of the Spingarn Medal and the Congressional Gold Medal.

 

Roberts and his wife Rita are the parents of two adult daughters and live in Pasadena, California.