• Front facade of Little Rock Central High School

    Little Rock Central High School

    National Historic Site Arkansas

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  • Restricted Access to Central High School

    All visitors should park and begin their visit at the National Park Service Visitor Center at 2120 West Daisy Gatson Bates Drive. Do NOT park in front of Central High School or at the Magnolia Gas Station. All school tours require advance reservations.

Traveling Trunks

Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site offers a 1950s Traveling Trunk loan program for teachers in Arkansas.

Each of the 10 Education Service Cooperative Units in the state houses one of the trunks, and one is located here at the site. The trunks contain reproduction artifacts from 1950s America and items about the 1957 desegregation crisis.

For more information on reserving a trunk, please contact a park ranger at (501) 396-3010 or email us.

Did You Know?

Telegram sent by Eisenhower to Governor Orval Faubus in 1957

In 1957 President Eisenhower sent soldiers into Arkansas to enforce the federal court's order to desegregate Central High - becoming the first president since Reconstruction to use federal troops to support African American civil rights. Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site