Lee Lorch - Little Rock Nine

Little Rock Nine

In 1957, Lorch was working as chair of the Mathematics Department at Philander Smith College, a small black college in Little Rock, Arkansas. That year, he and his wife, Grace, helped escort the Little Rock Nine, nine high school students attempting to be the first black students to enroll at Little Rock Central High School against white segregationist opposition that was so ferocious his wife had to save a 15 year-old black girl from a mob. Faced with threats and sticks of dynamite left in their garage and with the school's funding at risk, Lorch resigned and was again forced to look for new employment.