MINNIJEAN BROWN-TRICKEY

Return to Little Rock

Thursday, February 26 at 7:30pm · Mountainlair Ballroom

In September 1957, three years after the landmark Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education declared public school segregation unconstitutional, teenager Minnijean Brown set forth to put the court's ruling into action. She entered the civil rights movement in Little Rock, Arkansas, and raised America's consciousness about race, equality, and social justice.

Known as one of the teenage members of the infamous "Little Rock Nine," Brown-Trickey gained international recognition by attempting to break the color barrier of the segregated public school system in Arkansas. In front of 1,200 armed soldiers and a worldwide audience, she and eight other African American students collectively brought the injustices of segregation to the forefront of the American psyche. This pivotal event would mark the beginning of her long career as a crusader for civil rights.

After she retaliated to daily physical and verbal harassment during her year at Central High, Brown was suspended, and eventually expelled. She moved to New York, graduated from New Lincoln High School, and went on to attend Southern Illinois University. In the early '60s, she moved to Canada with her husband. She earned a master's degree in social work and specialized in the plight of Canada's native communities.

In 1999, Brown-Trickey returned to the United States to serve the Clinton administration as the deputy assistant secretary for workforce diversity in the Department of the Interior. There she became a champion and advocate for the rights of all minority groups and the dispossessed.

Brown-Trickey later became known as an expert diversity consultant, and has since trained nationally and internationally in antiracism, diversity, feminist research, and cross-cultural and organizational change. As a teacher, writer, and lecturer, she continues to focus on the theory and practice of nonviolence as a means toward social change.

She has also been the subject of a documentary, Journey to Little Rock: The Untold Story of Minnijean Brown, which has received critical acclaim in the US, the United Kingdom, Africa, and Canada. In addition to receiving numerous awards for her community and social work, Brown-Trickey was featured in People magazine and Newsweek, and has been a guest on Oprah and the Today Show. Her presentation is deeply poignant, as this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision on Brown v. Board of Education.