Firsts.
Four people who walked through doors that had never opened for someone like them — and held them open. Two evenings. Live on Zoom. Free.
had to be
first.
Behind every right that feels ordinary now, a person once stood where it was anything but. They registered the first vote, sat in the first seat, took the first office. This series brings four of them into conversation — in their own words, about the day the door opened and everything it cost.
Two nights, four firsts
Each evening pairs two guests whose breakthroughs rhymed across different states and years, followed by live audience conversation.
1961 · 1969Theotis Robinson Jr.
In January 1961 he became the first Black undergraduate admitted to the University of Tennessee. Eight years later he won a seat on the Knoxville City Council — the first African American to serve there in more than fifty years — and held it through 1977. He later retired as the same university's Vice President for Diversity and Equity, the institution that had once resisted letting him in.
1968Flonzie Brown Wright
In 1968 she was elected Election Commissioner of Madison County, Mississippi — the first Black woman elected to public office in the state. Paired with the new Voting Rights Act, her win helped Black residents become a majority of the county's registered voters and opened the way for other Black candidates to follow.
1957Minnijean Brown Trickey
In 1957 she was one of nine students — the Little Rock Nine — who desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. When Governor Orval Faubus moved to block them, President Eisenhower sent federal troops to enforce the Supreme Court's order. In 1958 she was expelled after standing up to the students who harassed and attacked her.
1965Cornelia Nedab
In September 1965, at fifteen, she and a friend walked in to integrate Churchland High School in Portsmouth, Virginia. The school hadn't expected Black students — and didn't send them home. Through two years of harassment they stayed, and became the school's first Black graduates.
Free to attend
Both evenings are open to the public at no cost. Register once for the link; donations are welcome but never required.
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Recorded
Can't make it live? Each conversation is recorded and posted to the LLP YouTube channel afterward.
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