Little Rock, Arkansas
August 27 to 30, 2018
In just a few days, on September 4, 2018, the anniversary of the historic events on September 4, 1957 at Little Rock Central High School will be celebrated and remembered. I realized a long time dream by visiting the site today.
Click here for their oral histories
The man who took the picture of me below was with his family. He is white and his wife is black. They were visiting the site because they wanted their two kids to be exposed to and engaged with this history at an early age.
The National Park Service runs a visitor center that gives free tours of the area as well as the school itself. I went on the 9am tour with Ranger Toni Webber and the 1pm tour with Ranger Randy Dotson. I know from experience that it is better to approach a topic from a few different angles. You always learn more than expected when you get information from multiple perspectives. NPS Ranger Randy took us into the intensity of the event by telling us the history as he's learned from his own study and also directly from many of the Little Rock 9. For example, Elizabeth Eckford, who you might know from this famous photograph by Will Counts, a photographer for the Arkansas Democrat newspaper. The experience of Elizabeth Eckford, who was just 15 years old at the time, is described by Ranger Randy (contains language):
Ranger Randy mentioned Grace Lorch, a white women who did what she could to help Elizabeth as she was verbally and physically attacked by the crowd. Mrs. Lorch and her husband Lee have quite an interesting story, one that should be told along side the story of Elizabeth Eckford and the other Little Rock 9.
Current students at Central High School honored Elizabeth Eckford with a commemorative bench in September 2018 to mark the place where she sat as an angry crowd surrounded her on that day back in 1957.
A few more comments...The 1pm tour with Ranger Randy Dotson had probably twenty people, four of which were a group of ladies from a local church. One woman from that group said she graduated from Central High in 1956, a year before the Little Rock 9 integrated the school. I asked what she would like people to know about those times and she said "That's how it was back then. We didn't know any different" referring to the Southern segregated way of life.
Another woman from that group of four calmly stated, during our comment/question time, the following: white people do not treat black people negatively anymore. Negativity today only comes from black people. Ranger Randy, myself and several others spoke up immediately and offered several examples of obvious and blatant racism, from Emmett Till's historical markers being shot at, to the racially motivated murders in Charleston, SC and Charlottesville, VA in just the last few years. I didn't think I'd hear such a statement on the tour but I was wrong.
The gas station just above and below was used by almost 100 members of the press during the events of September 1957. It was the only place around with a phone and electrical outlets. Since the area was blocked off, no cars were allowed in the area. The owner of the gas station let the press use those two things as long as they bought drinks, cigarettes, candy, etc. because that was the only way he could continue to make money on items besides gas. The station was preserved and the building just behind it was later used as the first visitor center for the National Park Service.
Look closely at the price for gas in 1957
Here are some books on the topic that both Rangers recommended:
