Little Rock Nine's Jefferson Thomas dies

Jefferson Thomas, one of the nine black students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957, died Sunday in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio. He was 68 and is the first to die among the nine students at the center of a historic constitutional confrontation between the federal government and Gov. Orval Faubus. With other members of the Nine, he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Clinton in 1999.

Another member of the Nine, Minniijean Brown Trickey, confirmed news of his death and said a formal announcement, including arrangements, is expected later today. A service at which other members of the Nine are expected to attend will likely be in about a week, she said.

Thomas, who was a student at Dunbar Junior High when he volunteered to enter Central as a sophomore, graduated from the school in 1960. He earned a business degree from Wayne State University and led an infantry squad in combat in Vietnam. Thomas narrated a US Information Agency film, "Nine from Little Rock," in 1964. It was intended to show racial progress in the U.S. during the Cold War.

He retired in Columbus after 27 years with the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

Thomas lives on in filmed exhibits at the National Park Service's Central High School Historic site, across the street from the school at Park Street and Daisy Bates Drive. It is open today. Its website has a lot of good history, including some excerpts from interviews with Thomas.

UPDATE: A statement on Thomas' death was issued by Carlotta Walls LaNier, president of the Little Rock Nine Foundation:

Jefferson Thomas, one of the nine black high school students who braved segregationist mobs to integrate the all-white Little Rock Central High School in 1957 under the protection of military forces ordered by the president of the United States, died Sunday of pancreatic cancer. He was 67. [Various sources say his birthdate was Sept. 1, 1942, which means he just turned 68.]

Thomas, a retired federal accountant, had spent the last decade of his life doing community service, traveling to promote racial harmony and supporting young people in seeking higher education. He, along with other members of the group who forever became known as the Little Rock Nine, was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal by President Bill Clinton.

Today, the eight who accompanied Jefferson to Central High all expressed their heartfelt sadness at the passing of the man they called their brother in a unique group for the past fifty-three years. The nine members have remained close, and in recent years they have provided college scholarships and mentoring to young people through their Little Rock Nine Foundation.

“I will miss his calculated sense of humor. He had a way of asking a question and ending it with a joke, probably to ease the pain during our teenage years at Central,” said Carlotta Walls LaNier, a member of the group and president of the Little Rock Nine Foundation. “He was a Christian who sincerely promoted racial harmony and took his responsibilities seriously.

Thomas was just 15 years old in 1957 when he signed up to become one of the first black students to integrate Little Rock Central High School, whose architectural beauty and academic reputation was known throughout the country. The nine students, chosen by Little Rock school system administrators for their excellent grades and records of good behavior, were stunned by the presence of hundreds of rioting segregationists and the Arkansas National Guard, which had been posted at the school under the orders of Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus to keep them out.

In an extraordinary move, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the renowned 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to escort the nine students to school and uphold the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision a few years earlier ordering the desegregation of schools. On Sept. 25, 1957, the nine students, under the protection of the U.S. military, marched up the steps of Little Rock Central High School and into the history books. It was the first time that a U.S. President had ordered the military to enforce a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The next year, Faubus closed all Little Rock high schools to avoid integration. When Little Rock high schools reopened for the 1959-60 school year, Thomas and LaNier returned to Little Rock Central High School and both of them graduated in May 1960.

Thomas and the other members of the nine hold more than one hundred awards for their work in championing Civil Rights. For more than fifty years, all nine of them have worked to advance the principles of excellence in education for young people, especially students of color, and in 1999 they created the Little Rock Nine Foundation, a non-profit organization, to further their cause.

Dates and time are pending for a celebration of Thomas’s life in Columbus, OH and Los Angeles, CA. He is survived by his wife, Mary; a son Jefferson Jr.; and stepchildren, Frank and Marilyn.