Thelma Mothershed Wair, the iconic member of the Little Rock Nine who helped integrate an Arkansas high school in 1957 despite opposition from white protesters, has died at the age of 83.
Mothershed Wair was born on Nov. 29, 1940, in Bloomberg, Texas. Her sister, Grace Davis, confirmed that she died at a Little Rock hospital Sunday due to complications from multiple sclerosis, The Associated Press and KARK reported.
Mothershed Wair was the eldest of the Little Rock Nine. She and eight other students — Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Melba Pattillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas and Carlotta Walls — integrated Central High School in Little Rock in September 1957.
Despite Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus deploying the National Guard to block their enrollment following the U.S. Supreme Court’s desegregation ruling, the students pressed on. President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by sending the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort them into the school on Sept. 25, 1957, per AP. Their story became an integral part of history, as the children became the first African American students to end school desegregation.
While Mothershed Wair had to finish classes out of state, she accumulated the necessary credits and earned her high school diploma at Central High School.
Davis praised her sister for always being a “fighter” despite everything she had gone through in her life.
“She was always a fighter,” Davis said of her sister, according to AP. “She’s been sick her entire life. She was born with a congenital heart defect and was told at an early age that she would never get out of her teens. So as she approached her 16th birthday, I remember Mother talking about how afraid she was because she thought she was going to die. But she did what she wanted to do. She enjoyed life.”
Mothershed Wair received a bachelor’s degree in home economics education from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
Several years later, Mothershed Wair married Fred Wair on Dec. 26. 1965. The couple had one son named Scott. She has two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She worked in an Illinois school system for nearly 30 years before retiring in 1994. When her husband died in 2005, she moved back to Little Rock, her sister said, per AP.
KARK reported that Mothershed Wair and the rest of the Little Rock Nine members were awarded the nation’s highest civilian award and a Congressional Gold Medal by former president and Arkansas governor Bill Clinton in 1999.
As Blavity reported, Paul McCartney penned The Beatles’ “Blackbird” as a tribute to the Little Rock Nine and other Black women who were part of the Civil Rights Movement.
“While we mourn the transition of Thelma Mothershed Wair, we also pay tribute to her lasting legacy, seen in generations of Americans empowered by her courage and perseverance,” Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said of Mothershed Wair’s passing, per KARK. “She and fellow members of the Little Rock Nine set us on a better path that altered the course of history in our City and nation forever. As a successful educator, author and advocate, she lived a life we lift up today upon her passing. Our prayers and support are with her loved ones at this difficult time.”
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