Jefferson Thomas, Member of the "Little Rock Nine" Dies at Age 68

Jefferson Thomas,  who was among nine black students to integrate a Little Rock high school in the United States' first major battle over school segregation, died Sunday after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 68.

The integration fight was a first real test of the federal government's resolve to enforce a 1954 Supreme Court order outlawing racial segregation in the country's public schools. After Gov. Orval Faubus sent National Guard troops to block Thomas and eight other students from entering Central High, President Dwight Eisenhower ordered in the Army's 101st Airborne Division. Soldiers stood in the school hallways and escorted each of the nine students as they went from classroom to classroom.

Jefferson Thomas was one of our unsung heroes whose courage and bravery in the face of racism and during one of the darkest periods in America's history. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.