>> guest: well, just before christmas of 1957 we were in the cafeteria, and my colleague minnijean brown loves chili. and she had been knocked around terrifically. little by little, her hope had been depleted. she had such hope that she could sing on stage. we all had this hope. you know, i wear the right dresses, i comb my hair, i read, i'm cute, i sing, they'll like me soon. and we all had this hope. and if you didn't translate that into the action of a warrior, if you didn't translate that into i'm going to protect myself, you'd die there. and minnijean seemed not to make the translation. she seemed to keep having the hope, and so she was battered a lot more. and in early december just before we were to leave to go home for christmas vacation, she was in line getting her chili. we were trying to pretend it was normal, it's okay. we're in this cafeteria, and there's hundreds of white students in there, and we've got our little place in the back of the room, and there are adults outside, a few guards guarding us still. but she comes down this line, she's got her soup on the tray, and sh

story is that my mother, minnijean brown is one of the little rock nine, the name coined by the media for the first black students to desegregate at the high school. the ground you're standing on became world-famous in 1957 because the first black students walked up the steps. exhibits put the crisis in the context of the greater civil rights movement. they began with the institution fact that and the blacks had no rights and were considered property. 3/5 a person. .ot even a full human being if you have an institution like that that flourishes for hundreds of years, even when the laws change, it is still embedded in people's minds and psyches. it is important to set the tone for what happened in the later years. a very important supreme court's we focus on is the 1896 plessy versus ferguson which established the separate but equal doctrine, putting a legal stamp on jim crow laws and black codes that flourished throughout the united states. a long timehere for creating a long list, everything from transportation systems, restaurants, hotels, , whenorhoods, hospitals during segregation

. >> reporter: minnijean brown- trickey says the hate she faced 60 years ago took away part of her innocence of the things i think that comes up is the fear, how we felt, and how we were so shattered. >> reporter: trickey says back then they weren't invited to the prom or other social events. but today the little rock nine were welcomed back and remembered for their sacrifice and their strength, like when elizabeth eckford stayed composed despite numerous taunts aimed at her. >> a lot of us talked about what it was like inside the school for 30 years. >> reporter: gloria ray karlmark remembered the last day of school and the message one white classmate left in her yearbook. >> she wrote, "in a different age we could have been friends." >> reporter: terrence roberts. do you feel as though we're going backwards? >> no, but when you think about it, we're going forward very slowly, because the forces of opposition keep pushing back. >> reporter: for the little rock nine, they don't celebrate themselves. they instead celebrate the possibility they still represent today. jericka duncan, cbs news,

story is that my mother, minnijean brown is one of the little rock nine, the name coined by the media for the first black students to desegregate at the high school. the ground you're standing on became world-famous in 1957 because the first black students walked up the steps. exhibits put the crisis in the context of the greater civil rights movement. they began with the institution of slavery