After a brisk but beautiful hike through Jean Petit State Park (and seeing the best natural bridge yet) we arrived in Little Rock.
Our first stop was the Central High School Visitor's Center, now part of the national park system. Central is still an operating high school, so ranger tours are infrequent. We lucked into arriving just as one was beginning. We were tired from the hike and surrounded by two huge and rowdy school groups and therefore expecting little from the tour. By the end of the talk we were blown away.
Seated in the gigantic auditorium the passionate Ranger challenged the little we had previously heard about the school (even as back-to-back fire and earthquake drills and student evacuations tried to drown out his speech). In 1957, 10 black students attempted to integrate Central High School. Yet not only had the history books given only a cursory glance to what happened, they had stopped far short of the full story.
Central wasn't the first school to be integrated in Arkansas, but it was strategically targeted, as it was large and well known. So large that when it was built it was the biggest school in the nation. This was obviously not because Little Rock was the biggest city in the country, but because when money was set aside for white students and black students Central took both. The black school had to rely on scraps-broken desks and grafittied books, that when no longer of use to the white students, were carried by dump truck to the front of the black school and dumped on the lawn.
Some schools desegregated earlier, mostly because the towns were so small they couldn't afford to operate two separate schools, but Central certainly brought the most media attention, making it a turning point in history. Initially the school board agreed to enroll 200 black students. This number shrank to 10 when students learned they would be banned from extracurricular activities and only students with perfect academic records would be admitted. Then of course there was the fact that those who did change schools would have to endure hell.
The first attempt at integration went horribly. The Governor used the National Guard not, as the black students rightfully assumed, to protect them from the angry mobs, but to block them from entering the school. After the first day one student returned permanently to her former school after being threatened by the Guard.
Later, after 8 of the students had survived the year-one girl was expelled after she dumped a tray of food on some of her tormentors and one boy graduated against all odds, begrudgingly passed as the school had nothing to hold against him, the Governor took swift action. To keep his job and avoid another year of integration he pushed through a weekend ballot authorizing school closures. It passed with 20,000 people voting in the affirmative and for all of 1958 Little Rock students of all races didn't go to school.
Later in the day we toured the Heifer International Village and got a brief look into the wonderful work Heifer does in the world, supplying animals to the hungry and educating the recipients on how to care for their livestock and continue the cycle of giving by sharing offspring with their community. I was amazed to learn you can buy a chicken for someone in a foreign country for just $20 and provide them sustainable food.
Finishing up a physically and emotionally exhausting yet wonderful day we spent the evening enjoying the university's rec center, particularly the private showers, hot tub and sauna.
Our first stop was the Central High School Visitor's Center, now part of the national park system. Central is still an operating high school, so ranger tours are infrequent. We lucked into arriving just as one was beginning. We were tired from the hike and surrounded by two huge and rowdy school groups and therefore expecting little from the tour. By the end of the talk we were blown away.
Seated in the gigantic auditorium the passionate Ranger challenged the little we had previously heard about the school (even as back-to-back fire and earthquake drills and student evacuations tried to drown out his speech). In 1957, 10 black students attempted to integrate Central High School. Yet not only had the history books given only a cursory glance to what happened, they had stopped far short of the full story.
Central wasn't the first school to be integrated in Arkansas, but it was strategically targeted, as it was large and well known. So large that when it was built it was the biggest school in the nation. This was obviously not because Little Rock was the biggest city in the country, but because when money was set aside for white students and black students Central took both. The black school had to rely on scraps-broken desks and grafittied books, that when no longer of use to the white students, were carried by dump truck to the front of the black school and dumped on the lawn.
Some schools desegregated earlier, mostly because the towns were so small they couldn't afford to operate two separate schools, but Central certainly brought the most media attention, making it a turning point in history. Initially the school board agreed to enroll 200 black students. This number shrank to 10 when students learned they would be banned from extracurricular activities and only students with perfect academic records would be admitted. Then of course there was the fact that those who did change schools would have to endure hell.
The first attempt at integration went horribly. The Governor used the National Guard not, as the black students rightfully assumed, to protect them from the angry mobs, but to block them from entering the school. After the first day one student returned permanently to her former school after being threatened by the Guard.
Later, after 8 of the students had survived the year-one girl was expelled after she dumped a tray of food on some of her tormentors and one boy graduated against all odds, begrudgingly passed as the school had nothing to hold against him, the Governor took swift action. To keep his job and avoid another year of integration he pushed through a weekend ballot authorizing school closures. It passed with 20,000 people voting in the affirmative and for all of 1958 Little Rock students of all races didn't go to school.
Later in the day we toured the Heifer International Village and got a brief look into the wonderful work Heifer does in the world, supplying animals to the hungry and educating the recipients on how to care for their livestock and continue the cycle of giving by sharing offspring with their community. I was amazed to learn you can buy a chicken for someone in a foreign country for just $20 and provide them sustainable food.
Finishing up a physically and emotionally exhausting yet wonderful day we spent the evening enjoying the university's rec center, particularly the private showers, hot tub and sauna.
This girl never even got to step foot into the school.
The torments from the crowd and treatment from the
National Guard were so bad she never went back.
The torments from the crowd and treatment from the
National Guard were so bad she never went back.
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