Minnijean Brown-Trickey was born to Mary and Jane Brown in Little Rock, AR. Willie worked as an independent mason and a landscaping contractor while Imogene was a homemaker and a nurses aide. Minnijean was the eldest of four siblings. Brown-Trickey began her high school career in 1956 at Horace Mann, an all-black school located in Little Rock, AR. She later transferred to Little Rock Central High School in 1957 following the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Minnijean was expelled from Central and finished her high school education in New York at the New Lincoln School in Manhattan.
Little Rock Nine
In September of 1957, with the help of Daisy Bates, a prominent civil rights activist in Central Arkansas, Malinda brown set out to integrate Little Rock Central High School alongside eight other African American students. The students originally attempted to enter the school on September 4, 1957, but were stopped by the Arkansas National Guard called in by Governor Orval Faubus. In response, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent 1,200 U.S. paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division to assist the Little Rock Nine in entering the school. On September 25, 1957, Brown-Trickey along with the other eight students desegregated Little Rock Central High School. Despite the troops being stationed at the high school throughout the '57-'58 school year, the nine students were physically and verbally harassed by their classmates. Brown-Trickey was the first suspended out of the Little Rock Nine and she was the only one to be expelled. Her suspension was the result of an incident which took place on December 17, 1957. While walking through the crowded cafeteria during lunch, Brown-Trickey was harassed and ended up dropping her lunch tray and spilling chili on two male students. She was suspended from school for six days. Following her suspension, Minnijean came back to school and a white student spilled soup on her. He was only suspended for two days.Later, in February, a group of girls threw a purse filled with combination locks at Minnijean. She responded by calling the girls "white trash" and was immediately expelled. After her expulsion, students at Central passed a note around which stated, "One down, eight to go." Following the incident, Brown-Trickey moved to New York and lived with Drs. Kenneth B. and Mamie Clark. The Clark's were African American psychologists who helped with the argument presented by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the Brown v. Board of Education case. Brown-Trickey attended the New Lincoln School in Manhattan for 11th and 12th grade.
In 1967, Minnijean Brown married Roy Trickey. The couple had six children before divorcing in the 1980s. One of her daughters, Spirit Trickey, worked for the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site in Little Rock, AR for 10 years. Growing up, Spirit and her siblings knew very little about their mother's involvement with civil rights. Minnijean didn't enjoy speaking about her time at Central, and it took 30 years for her to discuss the issue with her children. While Spirit no longer works for the Historic Site, she is still involved with the Little Rock Nine and their history. This includes coordinating her mother's speaking events and helping her write a memoir.
Media portrayals
Brown-Trickey has been depicted in two made-for-television movies about the Little Rock Nine. She was portrayed by Regina Taylor in the 1981 CBS movie Crisis at Central High, and by Monica Calhoun in the 1993 Disney Channel movie The Ernest Green Story. A documentary film about Brown-Trickey entitled Journey to Little Rock: The Untold Story of Minnijean Brown Trickey was produced by North-East Pictures in Ottawa, where Brown-Trickey lived during the 1990s.
