Fire from the Rock

Sylvia, DJ, and Gary decide to skip school and go over to the house of Miss Daisy, the president of the Arkansas NAACP, to see how the Nine are doing. Miss Daisy offers them the opportunity to ride in the car with the “Negro” press corps. They excitedly agree and end up parked in front of the white mob at Central High. They watch the white mob pelt the reporters with rocks and bricks. They also watch the Nine get past the police and enter the school building. Miss Daisy has the cars drive around the back and immediately pick up the students, who escape out the back door as soon as they have entered the building. Members of the white mob are calling for their own children to get out of the school if the Black kids are in there.

Sylvia’s mother is furious when she found out what Gary and Sylvia did, but DJ looks at Sylvia like a “warrior queen.” The next day no one goes to school because the parents are too afraid of what the white mob might do to their kids. Sylvia learns that President Eisenhower plans to send in the army to help the school integrate.