Convocation: Minnijean Brown Trickey

"Return to Little Rock." Minnijean Brown Trickey entered the civil rights movement, and America's consciousness, through the front door of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. She was one of a group of African-American teenagers known as the "Little Rock Nine." On September 25, 1957, under the gaze of 1,200 armed soldiers and a worldwide audience, Minnijean Brown Trickey faced down an angry mob and helped to desegregate Central High. This seminal event in American history was just the beginning of her long career as a crusader for civil rights. She has spent her life fighting for the rights of minority groups and the dispossessed. For her work, she has received the U.S. Congressional Medal, the Wolf Award, the Spingarn Medal, and many other citations and awards. Under the Clinton administration, she served for a time as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior responsible for diversity.