News Release

63rd anniversary of Central High desegregation

Program flyer with partner logos and a photo of several members of the Little Rock Nine leaving Central High School

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News Release Date: September 14, 2020

Contact: Robin White, Superintendent, 5013741957

Contact: David Kilton, 5013741957

Little Rock Central High School NHS (CHSC) will host online programs on September 23, 24 and 25, 2020 on the theme "Conversations with America's Youth: A Civil Rights Institute Mentoring Initiative" as part of the 63rd commemoration of Central High School’s desegregation by the Little Rock Nine. This special event is brought to you through a partnership with the National Park Service, President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home NHS, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the City of Little Rock, the Little Rock School District, Oxford American, Philander Smith College, Jefferson National Parks Association and Little Rock Central High School.

All programming is free, open to the public and will stream live online. Join conversations with selected specialists in their respective fields and distinguished local and national contributors who will serve as voices of experience to further this exchange of topics selected by youth. This youth-driven, intergenerational program will bring together participants in the struggle for equal rights and social justice as well as scholars who will share their stories and engage today’s potential leaders in dialogue about the way forward.

Featured speakers during the three-day will include Little Rock Nine members Minnijean Brown-Trickey, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green and Terrence Roberts; Dolores Huerta, President and Founder of the Dolores Huerta Foundation; Civil Rights activist and Freedom Rider Dr. Bernard Lafayette; and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Slavery by Another Name, Dr. Douglas A. Blackmon. Among the many local and national contributors who will be part of the programming are clinical psychologist Dr. Alexis Davis; Ryan D. Davis, director of UA Little Rock Children International; Mary Liuzzo Lilleboe, daughter of slain civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo and Coordinator for the University of Rhode Island Center for Nonviolence & Peace Studies; Chy’Na Nellon, Adjunct Professor at Philander Smith College; and Eric S. Singer, cultural historian and principal researcher for The Untold History of the United States.

The full list of panelist bios, program schedules and links to each session during this special programming can be found on the park website at go.nps.gov/chsc63rd. The event will be closed on Friday with a virtual concert arranged by Ryan D. Davis and Tim Anthony.

On September 4, 1957, Elizabeth Eckford, Terrence Roberts, Jane Hill and seven of their black peers arrived at Little Rock’s Central High School for the first day of integrated school. A mob of angry white citizens stood in their way; days earlier, a federal judge had ordered that the school be integrated, but Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus wouldn’t comply. Instead, he called out the Arkansas National Guard which surrounded the school and physically prevented the ten teenagers from entering. The mob, chanting “Two, four, six, eight, we ain’t gonna integrate,” surrounded Eckford, called her names and spit on her.

Mob rule kept Central High School segregated until September 24 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent in the 101st Airborne to prevent violence against the judge’s order. Jane Hill would never return to Central High School due to the threats her father received. Each subsequent day, the Little Rock Nine endured a torrent of harassment, emotional abuse and, in some cases, physical violence. Against such hostility, eight of the Little Rock Nine made it through the school year; in May 1958, Ernest Green became the first African American to graduate from Central High School.

Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site (CHSC) became a unit of the National Park Service on November 6, 1998. Encompassing Central High School and located within the Central High School Neighborhood Historic District, CHSC interprets the struggle to desegregate Central High School as well as myriad stories of American people exercising their fundamental human rights in pursuit of justice and equality in a land of promise and democracy. CHSC’s mission is to educate visitors and our community about this important chapter in our nation’s history—a chapter still being written today.

Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site is located at 2120 W. Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive, diagonally across the street from Central High School. The visitor center is open daily from 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. with free admission. Please check the park website – nps.gov/chsc – for access restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.



Last updated: September 14, 2020

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Contact Info

Mailing Address:

Little Rock Central High School NHS
2120 W. Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive

Little Rock, AR 72202-5212

Phone:

501.374.1957

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