April 12, 2023 @ 13:30 CDT
Site Visit #86
The 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education ordered the end of “separate but equal” schools which segregated black students into often inferior buildings with fewer opportunities. I visited the NPS site commemorating that decision during a trip last October. Now I was visiting a site made famous in 1957 for its open defiance of that Supreme Court decision.
Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas is actually a very large and very stunning (in a good way) building. It was built in the late 1920s for white students only and was still so segregated in 1957, despite the Court’s ruling three years prior. In September of that year, nine black students enrolled as students living within the school’s district. However, they were denied entry to the school on the first day of the term.
The racist Democratic governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent those nine students from entering the school, a move actually criticized by Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Mann. Nonetheless, armed troops lined the streets around the high school to prevent these students from getting the education that the Supreme Court had mandated.
Ultimately, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower ordered the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock. They replace the Arkansas National Guard and escorted the nine students into the high school, ensuring their safety and enforcing the Supreme Court’s ruling. Protests continued by the generally racist population of Little Rock throughout the school year, but the students remained.
Sadly, to prevent further integration of the schools, the legislature and governor passed a law allowing any school being forced to integrate to simply be closed. All high schools in Little Rock were closed for the entire 1958-59 school year under this law, denying all students their right to education. Several private schools including religious-based schools took in students – as long as they were white. Apparently, the churches were just as racist!
The schools reopened the following year, but it would be over a decade until they were fully desegregated.
Central High is still an active and open part of the school district and, therefore, closed to the general public despite being part of a National Historic Site. One can walk around it and take some photos, but not go on the grounds, other than walking up to the front steps. The Visitor Center is catty-corner to the school in its own building. There is a decent-sized exhibit area covering both the specifics of the events of 1957, along with backgrounds on desegregation efforts in general, the role of the federal government, and the various people involved.
This is one of those sites that I wish didn’t need to exist. It does need to, though, as it shows one of the uglier parts of U.S. history; a part I wish did not exist but does. I like to think that over the years, the nation has made great strides toward living up to the ideals of its founding documents. Yes, racists still exist – from all groups – but today, almost no one gives a second thought to students of all races attending the same school.
Steve
