This documentary film project by Heather Jurgenson, a 10th grade student at Uniontown, Kansas High School in 1996, began a beautiful story. Heather became friends with Elizabeth Eckford of the Little Rock Nine and produced a video documentary. She, along with two young men of the high school, would bring about a reunion between Elizabeth and a white student who befriended her forty years earlier.
The U.S. History textbook, The Americans by McDougal Littell, has the following in the teacher’s edition:
The experience at Central High School traumatized Elizabeth Eckford, who dropped from public view after 1958. In 1996, she reappeared in the news when Heather Jurgensen, a 16-year-old student at a rural Kansas high school, convinced Eckford to be the subject of a video for the National History Day competition. After turning down media interviews for decades, Eckford decided to help Jurgensen. Jurgensen’s video became a national finalist in the competition.
There will be much more on this inspiring story.
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Ken & Ann: the two white students who befriended Elizabeth Eckford in Speech class in 1957 at Little Rock Central High School
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Ken Reinhardt reunited with Elizabeth Eckford thanks to this group of students: Heather Jurgensen Russell, Jeremy Johnston & David Foster