Little Rock 9 Member Jefferson Thomas Dies In Columbus

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Jefferson Thomas was fast and athletic and often played pickup basketball with white students while growing up in Little Rock in the 1950s.

But when Thomas became one of nine black students to integrate Arkansas' largest high school, many of his basketball buddies weren't happy to see him in their classes.

"One of them said, 'Well I don't mind playing basketball or football with you or anything. You guys are good at sports. Everybody knows that, but you're just not smart enough to sit next to me in the classroom,"' Thomas recalled years later.

The pioneer in school desegregation died Sunday at an extended-care living facility in Columbus, Ohio, of pancreatic cancer at age 67, according to Carlotta Walls LaNier, who also enrolled at Central High School in 1957 and is president of the Little Rock Nine Foundation.

http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2010/sep/07/little-rock-9-member-jefferson-thomas-dies-columbu-ar-224975/

...how sad. :( i sincerely hope the great work of this man doesn't die w/him. too many of our youth seem to not have a lot of understanding (or appreciation) of those that came before, and the impact of their work. how much we owe them.

may he rest in peace.