On this Martin Luther King Day, we turn for some wisdom to Minnie Jean Brown Tricky, one of the original members of the Little Rock Nine, the teenagers who integrated Central High School after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling.

Tonight, she shares her brief but spectacular take on her hope for the next generation.

When I look at pictures at Central, I see me smiling.

That was also a strategy.

The nature of racism, hatred, all those things, is to dim your smile, dim your beauty, dim

your beauty, dim every aspect of you, and I wasn't going to let them do it to me.

We were harassed every day,

inspiring brave, we turned away.

Head held high, We walked the halls.

And I walked like I belong.

Oh, yes, like I belong.

Little Rock Nine.

In the fall of 1957, Minnie Jean Brown Tricky took her rightful place in what had previously been a whites-only school.

And she helped set America on a path towards desegregation in public schools.

Please rise and give a very warm and loving welcome to Miss Minnie Jean Brown Tricky.

Honestly, in a million years, I could not have anticipated what it was going to be like.

I actually rely on the photos.

The people screaming hatred behind us

and the soldiers not letting us go in.

Also, the horror of what people were screaming and saying.

I was so scared.

They were saying hang them.

...