Little Rock (Ark)

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    Thelma Mothershed Wair, Little Rock Nine Student, Dies at 83

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    In 1957, Mrs. Mothershed Wair and eight other Black students enrolled at Little Rock Central High School. They faced racist mobs and were escorted by federal troops.Thelma Mothershed Wair, one of nine Black students who became known as the Little Rock Nine for integrating a high school in 1957 during one of the biggest confrontations of the civil rights movement, died on Saturday at a hospital in Little Rock. She was 83.Her death was confirmed by her sister, Grace Davis. No cause was given.In the fall of 1957, nine Black students enrolled at Little Rock Central High School, the country’s first test for school integration after the 1954 Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision declared “separate but equal” education unconstitutional.In a 2004 oral history interview with the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Mrs. Mothershed Wair recalled seeing Gov. Orval Faubus of Arkansas on television calling on the National Guard to block the students from entering on their first day. “I thought he meant to protect me,” she said in the 2004 interview. “How wrong I was.”The students faced angry, racist mobs that first day, and the soldiers blocked them from entering the school. Mrs. Mothershed Wair also recalled seeing cars with out-of-state license plates near the school.For three weeks, Gov. Faubus defied the federal desegregation order, setting off a crisis across Little Rock. Then President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered federal troops to escort the students to school on Sept. 25. “The army has come into our city to put nine kids in a school?” she said she remembered thinking. “Did that make any sense? Was this not America?”With the 101st Airborne Division accompanying them, Mrs. Mothershed Wair recalled how the mobs that had blocked them from entering school “parted like when Moses stretched out his staff at the Red Sea.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Grocery Store Shooting That Killed 4 Leaves an Arkansas Town in Disbelief

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      The small town of Fordyce, Ark., was beginning to absorb the impact of the bloodshed, as a few details began to emerge. A fourth victim died on Saturday. Thomas and Sharon Brazil were sitting in their car late Friday morning in front of the only grocery store in Fordyce, Ark., discussing what they wanted to buy to put on the grill that night. Then they noticed a man with a gun approaching them.He looked at them, Mr. Brazil said, “and he shot.” Mr. Brazil, a 65-year-old minister, was shot in the forehead above his right eye. Ms. Brazil suffered cuts from broken glass. They went to the hospital but both survived. They were among the lucky ones.All told, the police said that the gunman killed four people and injured nine after he opened fire at the Mad Butcher grocery store. On Saturday, this town of 3,400 people, about 70 miles south of Little Rock, was only beginning to absorb the impact of the bloodshed, as a few details began to emerge, including a fourth victim who died in the evening.“I just don’t have the words,” said Kasey Langley, whose daughter owns a flower shop a few doors down from the Mad Butcher. “I woke up this morning thinking it was all a dream. This didn’t happen, but it did.”Late Saturday, the Arkansas State Police identified those killed as Shirley Taylor, 62; Callie Weems, 23; Roy Sturgis, 50; and Ellen Shrum, 81. Ms. Taylor’s daughter, Angela Atchley, said her mother was killed standing at the checkout of the Mad Butcher, while she was doing her usual grocery shopping. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ATF Agent Won’t Be Charged in Death of Arkansas Airport Executive in Raid

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      The federal agent who fatally shot the executive director of Little Rock’s airport was justified in his use of force, a local prosecutor said on Friday.The federal agent who fatally shot the executive director of Little Rock’s airport during an early morning raid in March was justified in his use of force, an Arkansas prosecutor said on Friday, ruling out any charges.Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had executed a search warrant at the home of the director, Bryan Malinowski, 53, on suspicion that he had repeatedly sold guns without a license.After agents entered the house, which sits on quiet cul-de-sac in Little Rock, Mr. Malinowski fired at them, shooting one agent in the foot, the authorities said. Another agent returned fire, shooting Mr. Malinowski in the head. Two days later, Mr. Malinowski died in a hospital.His death was met with outrage from his family, friends and gun-rights supporters in Arkansas and beyond, who believed that the raid on March 19 was ill-conceived and a case of government overreach. The raid also stunned residents and lawmakers across the state who wondered how a respected official could have been the target of an early morning raid.Bryan Malinowski’s death was met with outrage from his family, friends and gun-rights supporters in Arkansas and beyond, who believed that the raid was ill-conceived and a case of government overreach.Clinton AirportThe A.T.F. said shortly after the raid that it had been investigating Mr. Malinowski for months after suspecting that he had been selling a large number of firearms at gun shows without a license, sometimes soon after he bought them. The agency also found that Mr. Malinowski had purchased more than 150 guns from 2021 to February 2024, including multiples of the same models; an A.T.F. affidavit did not specify exactly how many of those he had sold.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More