Congress Considers Medals For `Little Rock Nine'

The "Little Rock Nine," the Black students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, AR, more than 40 years ago, soon may receive Congressional Gold medals if the plans of Sen. Dale Bumpers are carried out.

Speaking on the Senate floor, the Arkansas senator said, "The nine young Black children showed more bravery than anybody I have ever seen in my life. It was absolutely unbelievable."

He described the awarding of the medals, probably at a White House ceremony by Arkansas-native President Clinton, as "an honor that they are due and that is long overdue."

"Anybody who didn't live through that time can never understand what a traumatic period that was for my state," Sen. Bumpers told his colleagues. "We didn't attract a single industry in the state of Arkansas for almost 10 years after the Little Rock school integration crisis."

After his presentation, the Senate overwhelmingly accepted his bill, approving the honoring of the group.

Listed in the bill as the possible medal recipients are Minnijean Brown Trickey, Carlotta Walls Lanier, Melba Pattilo Beals, Terrence Roberts, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Thelma Mother-shed Wair, Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, and Jefferson Thomas.

Ernest Green, an assistant secretary of Labor under President Jimmy Carter, recently testified on Capitol Hill in support of making Central High School a unit of the Park Service, set aside for historic purposes.

Meanwhile, in the House, Rep. Benny Thompson (D-MS) heads the effort to enact the medal legislation.

MOM'S FIRST PROM: Margaret Thompson, 41, glows with delight as she poses for a senior prom photo with her son, Michael Brownlee, 18, at the Radisson Penn Harris Hotel in Pennsylvania. Thompson said she always wanted to attend a prom; she just never imagined it would have been more than two decades later and with her son! "I felt like Cinderella," the computer operator told JET. "Every time I think about it, it makes me want to cry. It makes me praise God for blessing me with a wonderful son." Brownlee, Thompson's only child, asked his mom to his prom for Central Dauphin East High School because his girlfriend didn't want to attend two proms. Recalls Thompson, "He said if I didn't go with him, he wouldn't go at all ... When I saw he was serious, I broke down and cried." Brownlee, who was a member of the prom king and queen's court, plans to attend Westchester University.