History of Little Rock Central High School
Personalities of the 1957 Crisis
African-American Education in Arkansas
Photo credits: Sign placed in front of Central High School in 1958 - note the misspelled word: "goverment" (Photo courtesy of the Arkansas History Commission, G1775); Students at Central High School, 1997 (NPS Photo).
The Lost Year and Recovery
In the summer of 1958, the National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People (NAACP) pursued integration through the courts while Governor Orval Faubus signed a bill into law that allowed him to close any or all schools in any district of the state that was faced with integration, pending a public vote on the issue. This measure was a way to prevent further desegregation efforts in Arkansas.
Two weeks later, the citizens of Little Rock voted against immediate integration of all the district's schools. As a result, Little Rock's high schools were closed for the 1958-1959 school year, including Central High School. This became known as the "Lost Year." Many students opted to attend school in other Arkansas communities, moved from the state to continue their education, or did not attend school at all.
In May of 1959, three of six Little Rock School Board members voted to terminate the contracts of 44 teachers and administrators who they felt had supported desegregation at Little Rock Central High School. This move prompted the city's leaders to action for a campaign to recall the three segregationist school board members. The group that pushed for this was called by the acronym STOP - Stop This Outrageous Purge. In the fall of 1959, the newly-elected Little Rock School Board members and three original moderate ones re-opened the high schools under the existing desegregation plan.
By 1961, many Central High School students began to turn their attention to world events. The Cuban Missile Crisis and President John F. Kennedy's assassination affected them profoundly. In fact, President Kennedy had recently visited the Arkansas State Fair in Little Rock the month before he was assassinated. The editor of the school newspaper, the Central High Tiger, wrote that "students today are more concerned with international affairs than they [were] with local events."
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