SALT LAKE CITY – It's a cool spring morning at Summit Christian Academy and the students in Laura Ottati's class are belting out the words to "We Are the World" as they paint different colored hands onto paper.
The 4- and 5-year-olds in the Salt Lake private school are too young to read about "The Little Rock Nine" — a group of black students who broke barriers by integrating into an all-white school in Arkansas in 1957.
But today they are gaining a deeper understanding of integration. Ottati asks them how they would feel if any one student – black, Vietnamese or Latino – was not allowed to enter the classroom because he or she was different. The kids said they would feel sad.
"It doesn't matter the color of our skin. God loves us and we're the same to Him," Ottati says.
The lesson is part of several weeks of preparation for a visit from one of the "Little Rock Nine," Terrence Roberts. He will speak at several schools and various public events this week. The Summit Christian kids will sing "We Are the World" at Tuesday night's banquet. The students' artwork, including the colored hands, will serve as table centerpieces.
"One of the 'Little Rock Nine' coming here? It's really exciting," said fifth-grader Joseph Jimenez, 11.
On Sept. 4, 1957, Roberts and eight other black students attempted to integrate into Central High School, as was newly allowed by federal law.
Roberts, now 68, said he heard on the TV and radio that morning a mob of people who didn't agree with integration was forming around the school. "I naively assumed I would be able to get into school and get on with my day," Roberts told the Deseret News in a phone interview. "It didn't turn out that way."
Summit Christian principal Trevor Kendall said his students will benefit greatly from learning about Roberts' experiences. "This is someone who took a great risk in order to get great rewards," he said. "It's not just about the civil rights movement but about overcoming any obstacle with courage."
Summit Christian has 49 students, of which 86 percent are minorities. Half of the students are from low-income families and receive tuition assistance. But Kendall points out smaller things such as obesity or stuttering can bring out prejudice and discrimination from others.
Third-, fourth- and fifth-graders in Cindy McCaw's class wrote skits based on the book, "Days of Courage: The Little Rock Story," and will act them out for the younger grades during Roberts' visit to the school. Some students are writing essays of their own stories of courage – some about being bullied.
Jiminez, who is in the fifth grade, wrote about how he grew his hair long so he could donate it to "Locks of Love," a charity that provides hair for cancer patients. But other kids made fun of his long hair and called him "girl."
"I did donate it pretty quick. I think you know why. Even to this day I am called 'girl,'" Jimenez wrote.
He eventually confronted the boy who was teasing him and told him to stop and asked what he had ever done to the bully. "I felt sad and mad when all this started but when I solved the problem I felt great," Jimenez wrote.
Fourth-grader Brooklyn Anderson, 10, an African-American student, said she would have been scared to be one of the "Little Rock Nine." Anderson said even small words can be harmful. Some kids call her "Skyscraper" because she is tall for her age. She doesn't think it's funny. "It hurts me inside," she said.
When Roberts visits the school this week, Anderson said she plans to ask him, "What was it like to be hated so much by, like, everybody?"
The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation in public schools in 1954 in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. In 1955, Little Rock School board adopted a plan for gradual integration beginning with Central High, fall 1957.
Central was Roberts' neighborhood school. "Why should I have to go to a school on the other side of town when Central was six blocks from my house?" he said.
Arkansas National Guardsmen, under order by Gov. Orval Faubus, barred the black students from entering the school the first day. Roberts' father, who had seen the news reports and began to worry about his son, found him and safely walked him home.
On Sept. 25, 1957, after federal intervention and with federal troops as escorts, the nine black students walked up the stairs and entered Central High. But that was only the beginning of their problems.
"Pretty much we were beaten up on a daily basis. We were harassed psychologically and intimidated, called names, insulted at every turn," Roberts said. "The students there tried to do everything they could do to drive us out."
If the black students retaliated, they would be suspended. "We all agreed to a vow of nonviolence," Roberts said. "You can choose to respond with anger or hatred — or not."
Roberts told the Deseret News he volunteered to integrate into Central High School so he could be at the forefront of the new law.
Jimenez, the fifth-grader, said, "I wouldn't have been able to stand it. I would have told my mom to take me out of there and gone to another school."
One student dropped out and attended a high school up north. The one senior student in the Little Rock group graduated from Central.
Since Faubus closed high schools for the 1958-59 school year rather than allow black students to attend, Roberts stayed with relatives in California and graduated from Los Angeles High School — "a completely desegregated school." The school simply reflected the mixed-race neighborhood in which it was, Roberts said.
He went on to earn a doctorate degree in psychology. Roberts and his wife live in Pasadena, Calif. He has two adult daughters.
The group still keeps in touch as they are board members of the Little Rock Nine Foundation, which provides college scholarships.
Roberts says he forgave the students at Central before the incidents even happened. "I'm a Christian person. It's not up to me to judge people. That's up to God."
For more information, go to www.littlerock9.com/
e-mail: astewart@desnews.com
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TERRENCE ROBERTS EVENT SCHEDULE FOR S.L. VISIT
Tuesday
5:30 p.m. — Banquet honoring Roberts at Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Open to the public. Reception at 5:30 p.m., dinner at 6:15 p.m., program and remarks at 7 p.m. Tickets are $100 and tax-deductible.
For more information call Summit Christian Academy at 801-467-1374.
Wednesday
1 to 2:55 p.m. — Speaking to students of West High, Hunter High, Paradigm High schools, in Rowland Hall's Larimer Center, Lincoln Street Campus, 970 E. 800 South, Salt Lake City. Open to the public.
E-mail brooke@outsidethebox.us.com to reserve a seat.
Thursday
9:30 a.m. — College admissions day for high school students at the University of Utah Guest House, 110 S. Fort Douglas Boulevard, Salt Lake City. Open to the public. Roberts will speak from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Admissions event runs through 3 p.m. and includes lunch, a tour of campus and an opportunity to talk with college recruiters.
E-mail brooke@outsidethebox.us.com to reserve a seat.