NEWS CIVIL RIGHTS ICON VISITS SCHOOL Elizabeth Eckford tells students, parents about importance of forgiveness by Brett Putnam, San Mateo County Times SAN MATEO, Calif. — Elizabeth Eckford is a face in a famous photograph, a 15-year-old black girl walking to Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. in 1957, surrounded by a jeering mob of white people. Eckford was one of the Little Rock Nine, the first black students to attend Central High after the Supreme Court ruled segregation unconstitutional. Eckford became a symbol of courage for her walk on that September morning, but she and her eight black classmates endured a long year of harassment. It was an ordeal that would have repercussions throughout her life. On Tuesday evening, Eckford came to San Mateo High School to speak about her experience to more than 500 young people -- and many of their parents. Eckford told the Performing Arts Center crowd that she had been intent on attending Central High because her parents -- who were working-class -- expected her to go to college, and she knew she would have a chance if she went to Central, rather than Little Rock's black high school. In her first few days at school, some whites reached out to her, but the number soon dwindled to only two -- who faced retribution from fellow whites. When Eckford realized that many whites were intent on driving her and her fellow black students from school, she resolved to keep coming back each day despite the abuse. But there was a price to pay.

"I had anger that I didn't know where to put," Eckford said. Eckford told the crowd she had a life-long struggle with acute shyness, and another disability she did not identify. She admitted she found it difficult to speak to the big crowd Tuesday evening. But in recent years, there has been much healing in her life, Eckford said. Much of it stems from her association with Sojourn to the Past, a program founded four years ago by Jeff Steinberg, a Capuchino High School history teacher. Steinberg has taken more than 2,000 Bay Area students on trips to the South to meet famous civil rights figures like Eckford, and to visit landmark sites of the movement. The Sojourners who go to Little Rock to see Eckford have helped draw her out, and through them, her message of courage lives on. In the 1990s Eckford made an important trip of her own -- to the White House, where she and the other members of the Little Rock Nine received Congressional Medals of Honor from President Clinton. Perhaps most importantly, Eckford has developed a relationship with a woman who was once a symbol of intolerance. She is "Hazel," who appears in the famous photo taken of Eckford on her first day at school. Hazel is seen following Eckford, with her face contorted in hatred. Many years later, Hazel asked Eckford for forgiveness. These days, when Eckford speaks to students, she talks about the importance of forgiveness and reminds them that "ordinary people do extraordinary things." Never stop fighting for justice, she says, because "you might be somebody's hope someday."