Westside Story Newspaper – Online The News of The Empire – Sharing the Quest for Excellence
By John Coleman, Community Photographer
Over 90 National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Inland Empire members and guests listened intently as professor and author, Terrence Roberts, MSW, PhD, honored guest and keynote speaker at the Inland Empire Unit of the National Association of Social Workers held it’s Annual Social Work Month Awards and Recognition Celebration on Monday, March 5 at Kaiser Palm Court in Fontana.
Dr Roberts, recipient of the U S Congressional Medal, bestowed in 1999 by then President Bill Clinton is honored as a member of the renowned “Little Rock Nine” one of nine 15 year-old Black junior high school students who, in 1957, volunteered to attend the rigidly segregated all and only white Little Rock Central High School.
Sounds simple, but in 1957 then President Dwight D. Eisenhower took control of the Arkansas National Guard to prevent its use by the Governor and sent in a unit of the U S Army to protect the safety of the Little Rock Nine for the full 1957-58 school year.
Governor Faubus closed all public schools statewide for the following year in his attempt to prevent desegregation.
