Thelma Mothershed-Wair
This week’s Cass County Pioneer is Thelma Mothershed Wair. Wair was a groundbreaking civil rights activist and educator, who was best-known as the eldest member of the brave and infamous Little Rock Nine. The Little Rock Nine were a group of African American students who, in 1957, courageously integrated the previously all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Wair was born November 29, 1940, in Bloomburg, Texas. When she was very young, she moved with her family to Little Rock, Arkansas. Following the Brown vs. Board of Education case, which ended segregation in schools, Wair and eight other African Americans attended Little Rock High School. There, they faced intense intimidation, harassment, and racial tensions, but persevered and became the first African Americans to earn diplomas in the previously allwhite school.
