Minnijean Brown Trickey is one of the nine African American students who collectively resisted opposition to the desegregation to enter Little Rock Central High School in 1957, with protection from federal troops. 

Although all of the Nine experienced verbal and physical harassment during their year at Central, Brown was first suspended, and then expelled for retaliating against the daily torment. She moved to New York and lived with Drs. Kenneth B. And Mamie Clark, African American psychologists who used their social science findings for the Brown v. Board Supreme Court case.  She graduated from the New Lincoln School in 1959.

Brown attended Southern Illinois University in journalism.  She received a Bachelor of Social Work in Native Human Services from Laurentian University and Master of Social Work at Carleton University, in Ontario Canada.

Minnijean Brown Trickey has worked in various settings committed to peacemaking; environmental issues; developing youth leadership; diversity education and training; cross-cultural communication; gender and social justice advocacy. She served in Clinton Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Workforce Diversity at the Department of the Interior.   Her teaching experience in social work includes Carleton University, and community colleges in Canada.  She continues as a teacher, writer and motivational speaker.  She is the Shipley Visiting Writer for Heritage Studies at Arkansas State University.  

She is the subject of a documentary, Journey to Little Rock: the Untold Story of Minnijean Brown Trickey, which has received critical acclaim in international film festivals in Africa, the UK, the U.S., South America and Canada.  She was featured in People Magazine, Newsweek, the Ottawa Citizen, the BBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp, Donahue, as well as numerous other television, radio and print media.  She appeared with the Little Rock Nine on Oprah and the Today show.