Wair, the oldest member of the Little Rock Nine Students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957, passed away at 83 years old due to complications from multiple sclerosis.

One of the nine Black students who integrated a high school in Arkansas’ capital city in 1957 while a mob of white segregationists yelled threats and insults at them has died at age 83.

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