Fire from the Rock

Sylvia and Gary prepare to head off to the first day of school. They decide to watch the news first to see what happens at Central. They see reporters interviewing white students who enter, including Rachel. Rachel tells the reporter she does not want to see any more hatred. Sylvia is proud of her friend. Sylvia sees Calvin at school, and he tells her she can lean on him any time. He also says Reggie sends them a few dollars a week as promised. Everyone talks about what is happening over at Central High School and wonders if the soldiers are there to protect the kids trying to enter or keep them out. Sylvia expresses how happy her life is right now. She is excited about her classes and her friends, but she feels guilty at taking her name off the list. She feels she has maybe let the other students down.

Sylvia’s mother insists she stay home and care for DJ, who isn’t feeling well. Sylvia’s mother, a teacher, needs to go to work and be there for her students. Sylvia is upset to be missing day two of school, but she does not have a choice. She turns on the television to see what is happening over at Central High. Her Aunt Bessie also comes over to the house because no one will be out getting their hair done with the National Guard in town and the white people so angry. She and Sylvia watch Elizabeth, one of the Little Rock Nine, walk through the angry mob and try to go in the front door of Central. The soldiers cross their guns and aim their bayonets at her to prevent her entrance. Sylvia and Aunt Bessie are horrified. Elizabeth walks back down the front steps and into the angry white mob once again. Sylvia and Aunt Bessie watch as white people spit on Elizabeth, call for her lynching, and call her horribly racist names. She finally makes it to the bus stop, where one white woman sits next to her on the bench and puts her arm around her. Sylvia is so upset she throws up.

In her diary, Sylvia writes about how Elizabeth did not get the message to meet the other eight students at a different door, so Elizabeth ended up alone. The other eight students were also denied entrance by soldiers. Sylvia writes that the court ordered the National Guard to stand down, so the governor plans to use the local police force to stop the Nine. Sylvia worries that they will not be able to handle an angry mob.