Entries about civil rights

After we toured through the Little Rock Historic District, we went to the Central High School National Historic Site.

I'm old enough to remember when Arkansas Governor Orval E. Faubus tried to stop school integration in Arkansas. In 1957, I was attending Oberlin College which in the 1860s was one of the stops on the Underground Railroad that helped slaves escape from the south. I wasn't sure what we would see if we went to Central High School. It was fairly difficult to find the High School which is an operating high school. as it was tucked away in a residential neighborhood.

Houses near Central HS

There is parking at the new (2007) Visitor's Center which is across the street diagonal from the actual school.

National Historic Site

The new visitor's center was a part of the 50th Anniversary Celebration. The old one had been at an old gas station across the street.

Gas station across from Central HS

Reservations are necessary for groups to tour the actual school, but the visitor's center is free.

Visitor's Center entrance

When we arrived there was a class of 6th graders there. The Visitor Center contained interactive exhibits on the 1957 desegregation crisis. Eisenhower was President then and when he used federal troops to ensure the rights of African-American children to attend the previously all-white school, he became the first president since the post-Civil War Reconstruction period to use federal troops in support of African-American civil rights.

Photo of that day in September

I was very impressed by the exhibits which contained interactive oral history listening stations.

How hard it must have been for the Little Rock Nine. In 1999 the Little Rock Nine each received the Congressional Gold Medal-our nation's highest civilian honor-for their efforts to desegregate Little Rock Central High School

NPS Store at the Visitor's Center

Central In Our Lives: Voices from Little Rock

DVD: Nine From Little Rock ($19.95)

Available for sale are books such as "Central In Our Lives: Voices from Little Rock Central High School 1957-1959" ($24.95) which is a compilation of accounts from white students who attended Central during the crisis. I got my passport book stamped.

Central High School

Then we drove out toward Memphis.

We got off the Interstate for lunch and I thought we'd go to KFC, but it was behind a Shell station and there was no parking, so we went to Waffle House instead.

Waffle house sign

Full House Policy

Bob's waffle

My lunch scrambled eggs toast, bacon, and cheese grits

Landscape on the west side of the Mississippi