Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Thursday he was just a “curious kid” when he was part of a group of white students confronting Black students outside North Little Rock High School.
"That was, gosh, 65 years ago, a curious kid,” Jones said.
The photo, shot by the Associated Press in 1957, shows a group of Black students trying to integrate classes at North Little Rock High School when Jones was a 14-year-old sophomore.
We've got the news you need to know to start your day. Sign up for the First & 4Most morning newsletter — delivered to your inbox daily. >Sign up here.
The young Black men are blocked from entering the school by a much larger group of white teens.
The Cowboys owner, now 80 years old, spoke about the issue after Thursday’s Cowboys game.
U.S. & World
The day's top national and international news.
"I didn't know at the time the monumental event, really, that was going on and I'm sure glad that we're a long way from that. I am,” Jones said. “And that would remind me just to continue doing everything we can to not have those kinds of things happen."
Little Rock was at the center of the civil rights movement at the time, and Arkansas schools were desegregated soon after the photo of Jones was taken.
Jones said he showed up to see what was going on -- not to participate in the mob.
"Nobody there had any idea, frankly, what was going to take place. You didn't have all the last 70 years of reference and all the things that were going (on),” he said.
The Post article also raises questions about why Jones has never hired a Black head coach.
Jones acknowledges in his interview that racial change in the NFL's coaching ranks has come slowly but adds, when it comes to diversity, he wants to be the "first in line."
At the time the photo was taken, Jones said he wasn’t trying to stop the Black students from entering the high school. He said he was only worried he would get in trouble with his football coach who had warned players not to be there.
