Resurfaced photo shows young Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones with students trying to keep Arkansas school segregated

Resurfaced photo shows young Jerry Jones with students trying to keep Arkansas school segregated (Fox Newslink): An old photo recently resurfaced shows a 14-year-old Jerry Jones in a crowd, consisting of white students, attempting to deny access to six Black students at North Little Rock High School.

The event occurred just a few weeks before the Little Rock Nine integrated Little Rock Central High School less than five miles away in what turned out to be one of the biggest moments of the civil rights movement. To a lesser extent, this group of Black students is known as the North Little Rock Six. 

Two years earlier, the North Little Rock school board voted to integrate classes for seniors, but then-Arkansas Gov. Orval E. Faubus was largely opposed. Despite Faubus' beliefs, six students tried to enter the school, but with no luck.

On Sept. 9, 1957, Richard Lindsey, Gerald Persons, Harold Smith, Eugene Hall, Frank Henderson and William Henderson attempted to enter the school despite being shoved and having dozens of white students blocking their entry. The six students eventually enrolled at a different school based on advice from the district's superintendent. North Little Rock High School was officially integrated seven years later.

Jones has acknowledged that it is him in the photograph, but he says he did not participate in protesting the integration and looked on curiously without animosity.

"I don't know that I or anybody anticipated or had a background of knowing … what was involved,"Jones, now 80, said via Daily Mail. "It was more a curious thing."

Jones also noted that his football coach at the time told his players to avoid the hysteria, but the now Dallas Cowboys owner did not oblige. He graduated from North Little Rock in 1960.

Jerry Jones Admits to Being In 1957 Photo Trying to Stop Black Students From Entering North Little Rock High School (Ballerlink): Are we surprised that an old, wealthy white man once participated in one of history’s most notable racially charged events? Not at all.

Leave it to social media to unearth never-before-seen photos that some hoped were long gone. On Wednesday, historian and civil rights activist, Joshua Clark Davis, tweeted a black-and-white picture from 1957 of six Black students trying to enter North Little Rock High School. They are surrounded by white men and teens trying to prevent them from entering the school. 

Among the crowd of racists stands the Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, who is one of the young men trying to stop the school’s desegregation from taking place. He was 14 years old at the time.

According to Davis, the now 80-year-old has acknowledged it was him in the picture. While this may be surprising for some, the multi-billionaire has a sketchy past when it comes to Black and brown people. In 2013, he was recorded on video making an insensitive comment about a Black woman. Famously in 2017, as NFL players took a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustices, Jones gave his players an ultimatum: stand for the anthem or be cut from the team. 

Jones has also been called out on several other occasions for being silent on issues facing African-Americans, which is disheartening considering that many of his players are Black.