In 1957, she and eight other Black students — the Little Rock Nine — enrolled in a high school in the face of racist mobs and a resistant Jim Crow governor.

Wair, a member of the Little Rock Nine, is speaking out tonight exclusively to Channel Seven to discuss her lasting legacy.

She and eight other students integrated Central High School in Little Rock in 1957 while a mob of White segregationists yelled threats and insults.

News came this weekend that Thelma Mothershed Wair, one of the Little Rock Nine, has died. She was 83.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Thelma Mothershed-Wair, the eldest member of the Little Rock Nine passed away on Saturday. Mothershed-Wair was born on November 29, 1940, in Bloomberg, Texas and became a national hero as one of nine African American students involved in the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School in 1957.

Many are mourning the loss of an Arkansan who inspired change for the better and changed African-American education across the nation.

Thelma Mothershed Wair, a member of the Little Rock Nine that integrated an Arkansas high school, has died at age 83.

EDWARDSVILLE - Thelma Watershed Wair,one of the historical Little Rock Nine who integrated an Arkansas high school in 1957 amidst an angry mob of white

Thelma Mothershed Wair, one of the nine Black students who integrated a high school in Arkansas' capital city of Little Rock in 1957 while a mob of white segregationists yelled threats and insults, has died at age 83.

Mothershed Wair died Saturday at a hospital in Little Rock after having complications from multiple sclerosis, her sister, Grace Davis, confirmed Sunday to The. The students who integrated Central High School were known as the Little Rock Nine.