Short Synopsis
Veteran journalist David Margolick tells the story of Hazel Bryan and Elizabeth Eckford, the two women in the iconic photograph taken at Little Rock Central High School at the start of desegregation.

Full Synopsis
The names Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan Massery may not be well known, but the image of them from September 1957 surely is: a black high school girl, dressed in white, walking stoically in front of Little Rock Central High School, and a white girl standing directly behind her, face twisted in hate, screaming racial epithets. This famous photograph captures the full anguish of desegregation—in Little Rock and throughout the South—and an epic moment in the civil rights movement.

In this gripping book, David Margolick tells the remarkable story of two separate lives unexpectedly braided together. He explores how the haunting picture of Elizabeth and Hazel came to be taken, its significance in the wider world, and why, for the next half-century, neither woman has ever escaped from its long shadow. He recounts Elizabeth's struggle to overcome the trauma of her hate-filled school experience, and Hazel's long efforts to atone for a fateful, horrible mistake. The book follows the painful journey of the two as they progress from apology to forgiveness to reconciliation and, amazingly, to friendship. This friendship foundered, then collapsed—perhaps inevitably—over the same fissures and misunderstandings that continue to permeate American race relations more than half a century after the unforgettable photograph at Little Rock. And yet, as Margolick explains, a bond between Elizabeth and Hazel, silent but complex, endures.

"The ending is not what you would expect or even hope for but instead demonstrates how much pain is still felt by all involved and how far we all have still to travel. VERDICT Very thoughtfully and sincerely written, this work is simply a must-[listen]." ---Library Journal Starred Review

"MacDuffie demonstrates her award-winning style in a performance that is as clear and straightforward as Margolick's writing." ---AudioFile

"MacDuffie's reading indicates she is touched by the material.…A fine combination of historic subject matter and good reading keeps us tuned in." ---Booklist Audio Review

"Margolick's book becomes utterly engrossing, for it touches on a variety of thorny, provocative themes: the power of race, the nature of friendship, the role of personality, the capacity for brutality and for forgiveness." ---Publishers Weekly

"Riveting reportage of an injustice that still resonates with sociological significance." ---Kirkus

"David Margolick has written a beautiful and moving meditation on race, struggle, and the forgiving and unforgiving passage of time." ---Rachel Cohen, author of A Chance Meeting

"David Margolick's dual biography of an iconic photograph is a narrative tour de force that leaves us to grapple with a disturbing perennial---that forgiveness doesn't always follow from understanding." ---David Levering Lewis, author of W. E. B. Du Bois

Library Journal Review

Booklist Bestseller