Minnijean Brown-Trickey

Minnijean Brown-Trickey
Photo with Congressman Vic Snyder
Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior For Workforce Diversity
In office 1999–2001
President	Bill Clinton
Personal details
Born	(1941-09-11) September 11, 1941 (age 75) Little Rock, Arkansas, United States
Residence	Canada
Alma mater	Laurentian University
Occupation	Civil Rights Activist
Awards include the Congressional Gold Medal and Spingarn Medal

Minnijean Brown-Trickey (born September 11, 1941) was one of a group of African American teenagers known as the "Little Rock Nine." On September 25, 1957, under the gaze of 1,200 armed soldiers and a worldwide audience, Minnijean Brown-Trickey faced down an angry mob and helped to desegregate Central High.

She was suspended for six days in December 1957 for dropping her tray, on which she had a bowl of chili, on the floor and splashing two white boys, after several chairs had been pushed in her way, withdrawn, and then pushed in her way again, in the cafeteria. Later, in February, a group of girls threw a purse filled with combination locks at Minniejean. She responded by calling the girls "white trash" and she was immediately expelled.

In her adult life, Brown-Trickey continues to be an activist for minority rights. She lived in Canada for a number of years in the 1980s and 1990s, getting involved in First Nations activism and studying social work at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, and later completing a Master of Social Work degree at Carleton University in Ottawa. She has received the Congressional Gold Medal, the Wolf Award, the Spingarn Medal, and many other citations and awards. Under the Clinton administration, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior responsible for diversity.

A documentary film about Brown-Trickey entitled Journey to Little Rock: The Untold Story of Minnijean Brown Trickey (2002) was produced by North-East Pictures in Ottawa, where Brown-Trickey lived during the 1990s. In 2007, Laurentian also honored Trickey with an honorary doctorate of laws.