That photo became a perfect symbol of the struggle for desegregation. If it had been staged, it'd have been criticized for being too on the nose. But the two figures at the center of it aren't symbols -- they're people. And hearing what happened after this photo will change how you think of America forever. Or it will change how you think of America for a while, then you'll kind of forget about it. Either one.

In case you're wondering if maybe she's shouting words of encouragement there, what she's saying is "Go home, n****r! Go back to Africa!"

You've seen the below photo before, whether you remember it or not. It depends on how well you were paying attention in history class the day they talked about segregation. In your textbook was this picture of a black student surrounded by a white mob. At the center of said mob is a single white teenager screaming in blind rage:

4 First, Some Background ...

On September 4, 1957, 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford got ready for her first day of the new school year like every other teenager. She put on a new dress, had her mom do her hair, ate breakfast, grabbed her schoolbook, and went out the door. However, she never made it to her first class. Elizabeth was part of the Little Rock Nine, a group of nine black students who had enrolled at the previously all-white Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. School segregation had been struck down three years earlier, and this was to be the first day the new law was enacted in Arkansas.

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On that first morning, Eckford accidentally arrived earlier than the rest of the group, and (on her own) had to face reporters, armed members of the national guard, and about 400 angry white protesters, all of whom blocked her path to the school's entrance. That's when that famous photo was taken, among others.

Will Counts/Arkansas Democrat

For younger readers, imagine everyone else is a Twitter egg.

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She was 15. Think about that. Think of how fragile you were at that age, how the smallest slights seemed like life-ending catastrophes. How you (wrongly) felt like you were the center of everyone's scorn and mockery. Imagine that bundle of nervous hormones striding through a crowd of people who are, in fact, all screaming directly at you.

Behind them, you see the fucking military and realize they aren't there to protect you from the mob -- they're there on behalf of that mob. Treating you like you're a suicide bomber there to level the building, rather than a kid who wants to quietly learn stuff alongside everybody else. Someone who just wants to fit in.

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And that screamer stalking Eckford through the crowd? Her name is Hazel Bryan.