Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas

Today I was able to visit Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In September of 1957, Central High School captured the world's attention when the "Little Rock 9" (9 African American high school students) attempted to integrate the school in accordance to the 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education which outlawed segregation in public schools. Governor Orval Faubus used the Arkansas National Guard to keep the students out of the school and when he recalled the national guard and left the black students open to attack  President Eisenhower was compelled to call in the 101st Airborne Division to protect the students after a mob gathered to try to keep the students out. The media attention brought attention to the issue and the nine students were able to finish the school year before Governor Faubus closed all public schools the next school year. In 1959 the Federal courts ruled that school closings were unconstitutional and all public schools reopened on an integrated basis in August with three African American students attending Central High. I learned a wonderful story about a famous picture taken of Elizabeth Eckford navigating a mob of people as she tried to get into the school on the first day. A white woman in the crowd was pictured screaming at Elizabeth as she walked. That image has come to represent resistance to desegregation. Forty years later Hazel Bryan Masery, the white woman, and Elizabeth Eckford were able to talk and reconcile what happen on that day. That example of forgiveness gave me a wonderful feeling of hope. I'm so glad I was able to stop at this historic site that is still a high school today.