September 25 Birthday
On September 25, 1957, nine Black students entered Little Rock Central High School under the protection of 1,000 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division. President Eisenhower had federalized the Arkansas National Guard — taking it out of Governor Orval Faubus's control — and sent in regular Army troops. The students — known as the Little Rock Nine — endured harassment, threats, and violence throughout the school year. One student, Minnijean Brown, was expelled for responding to harassment. She transferred to a school in New York, where she graduated. Central High was integrated, but Little Rock closed its public high schools the following year rather than continue integration. William Faulkner, born this day in 1897, set most of his novels in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi — a fictional version of Lafayette County. He wrote The Sound and the Fury (1929) from four perspectives, one of them from the mind of a mentally disabled man. He won the Nobel Prize in 1949. He worked as a Hollywood screenwriter to pay bills — he wrote The Big Sleep with William Faulkner as a credited writer and Raymond Chandler as the source novelist, and neither could explain who killed the chauffeur. People born on September 25 fall under the zodiac sign of Libra. The birthstone is Sapphire and the birth flower is Aster. Historical events on September 25 include 1957: US Army 101st Airborne escorts nine Black students into Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1981: Sandra Day O'Connor sworn in as first woman on Supreme Court, 1789: Congress approves Bill of Rights (also Sept 24). Famous people born on September 25 include William Faulkner (1897), Michael Douglas (1944), Mark Hamill (1951).