Elizabeth Paisley Huckaby (14 April 1905 in

Hamburg, Arkansas Hamburg is a city and county seat of Ashley County, Arkansas, Ashley County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 2,857 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is best known for being the home town of NBA legend Scottie Pippen. G ...

– 18 March 1999 in

Little Rock, Arkansas (The Little Rock, The "Little Rock") , government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager , leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_ ...

) was an educator. As the Vice-Principal for Girls of

Little Rock Central High School Little Rock Central High School (LRCHS) is an accredited comprehensive public high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States. The school was the site of forced desegregation in 1957 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation by ...

, Huckaby was given the responsibility for protecting the six female members of the first nine black students admitted to the school after

desegregation Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...

. Her book ''

Crisis at Central High ''Crisis at Central High'' is a 1981 in television, 1981 made-for-television movie about the Little Rock Integration Crisis, Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957, based on a draft of the memoir by the same name by former assistant principal Eli ...

: Little Rock 1957–58'', published in 1980, was based on a diary she kept on the events. The daughter of a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

minister, Huckaby earned a B.A. and M.A. in education from the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

, where she was elected to

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

as an undergraduate. Her husband, Glenn Huckaby, was a long-time educator with the Little Rock School District. She was portrayed by

Joanne Woodward Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward (born February 27, 1930) is an American actress. A star since the Golden Age of Hollywood, Woodward made her career breakthrough in the 1950s and earned esteem and respect playing complex women with a charact ...

in the 1981 TV film based on ''Crisis at Central High''.
Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture page on Elizabeth Huckaby

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huckaby, Elizabeth 1905 births 1999 deaths 20th-century American educators People from Hamburg, Arkansas People from Little Rock, Arkansas University of Arkansas alumni Little Rock Nine