What a fascinating book that I plan to purchase for my B&N Nook to read when I have a moment. I had never really thought about what happened to either woman. I’ve briefly thought about Ms. Elizabeth Eckford when I read articles in various magazines about Civil Rights and Desegregation. I always thought that she must have been very strong to go through such horrible abuse so that I could be educated. In my mind I thought that she went on to college, was a complete superwoman and incredible successful. It’s so sad that it shattered her and caused her such emotional anguish that she could never be whole. As far as Ms. Hazel Bryan Massery she was always (to me) a hateful face in the crowd and I didn’t realize she went to school with her! What a fascinating premise for a novel to go back and examine the directions their lives took and how this moment forever captured in celluloid created a ripple affect for both of them tying them in ways unfathomable to me. I truly thank the strong young people who suffered such abuse for the right for people of color to be educated and live without legal segregation. I hope that this strikes a conversation in school for kids to realize that they need to stay in school, be educated and exercise their rights (voting, education, employment, ‘the American Dream’).
Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock
YouTube Interview with Mr. David Magolick
Description
The names Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan Massery may not be well known, but the image of them from September 1957 surely is: a black high school girl, dressed in white, walking stoically in front of Little Rock Central High School, and a white girl standing directly behind her, face twisted in hate, screaming racial epithets. This famous photograph captures the full anguish of desegregation—in Little Rock and throughout the South—and an epic moment in the civil rights movement.
In this gripping book, David Margolick tells the remarkable story of two separate lives unexpectedly braided together. He explores how the haunting picture of Elizabeth and Hazel came to be taken, its significance in the wider world, and why, for the next half-century, neither woman has ever escaped from its long shadow. He recounts Elizabeth’s struggle to overcome the trauma of her hate-filled school experience, and Hazel’s long efforts to atone for a fateful, horrible mistake. The book follows the painful journey of the two as they progress from apology to forgiveness to reconciliation and, amazingly, to friendship. This friendship foundered, then collapsed—perhaps inevitably—over the same fissures and misunderstandings that continue to permeate American race relations more than half a century after the unforgettable photograph at Little Rock. And yet, as Margolick explains, a bond between Elizabeth and Hazel, silent but complex, endures.
About the Author
David Margolick is contributing editor, Vanity Fair, and a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review.
About Author
