Elizabeth Eckford made her way through a crowd of angry whites 40 years ago after National Guardsmen refused to let her and eight other black students enter Central High School.
Hazel Bryan was part of the crowd that day. Her face grimaced in hate, she shouted at Eckford, who clutched her books to her chest and walked on, her emotions hidden behind dark glasses.When a photograph of the bitter meeting between the two 15-year-old girls appeared in newspapers around the country, Eckford became a symbol of the civil rights movement. Bryan's young face became an image of racial hatred.
Now 55, the women met Monday for the first time since that troubled time. There were smiles and poses for pictures. They mostly let the past be.
"Thank you, Elizabeth, for agreeing to do this," Bryan, now Hazel Massery, said quietly as she greeted Eckford at her home.
Answered Eckford, before the two left for the school: "I think you're very brave to face the cameras again."
The nation learned about the "Little Rock Nine" that day, Sept. 4, 1957, as the black students headed to the all-white school with about 2,000 students.
Armed with a federal judge's order to let them in, they were turned away at the door by the National Guard under orders from Gov. Orval E. Faubus. Three weeks later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower called in U.S troops to put down the resistance and the school was integrated.
Bryan's parents pulled her out and sent her to a different school.
For years, Massery felt bad about her behavior. Some 35 years ago, she called Eckford and apologized.
Massery has been the only white person to publicly come forward and apologize for the hatred directed at blacks during the desegregation crisis.
"I think we were saying, `Go home.' I was 15 at the time. You're not a fully mature person," Mas-sery said recently. "We weren't thinking about the consequences of what we were doing, how she (Elizabeth) felt."
Their reunion was arranged by Will Counts, the photographer at the Arkansas Democrat, now the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, who snapped the photo of their first meeting.
The two women, both mothers who still live in Little Rock, spoke around the most painful parts of the past but reassured each other through friendly pats and smiles that they were no longer enemies. Eckford said she remembered Massery's apology and had wanted to meet her but had forgotten her name.
They talked of their children and of the media attention for the 40th anniversary. President Clinton is supposed to be here Thursday and may deliver a major racial policy speech.
Eckford worried she may have a hard time talking about the time so long ago when she walked through the angry gantlet. At the school, both white and black students recognized her.
"Miss Eckford, I just want you to know how much I respect you," a black student said.
Massery said that she had hoped others would know of her regret and her acknowledgment that intolerance was wrong.
"I just want to say, Elizabeth, I'm elated that you're doing this," she said.
"I'd like for my children to be proud, to see that both of us are role models."