Arkansas: Little Rock Central High School

NPS

Quick Facts

Location:

Little Rock, Arkansas

Designation:

National Historic Site

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that segregation in the public schools of the nation was unconstitutional. One of the first big tests of that decision came at Little Rocks Central High School. On September 23, 1957, nine African Americans attempted to enroll in the formerly all-white school. Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus called in the National Guard to “prevent violence” and to keep the students from entering. After a federal judge forced Faubus to remove the troops, the Little Rock police were unable to control the crowd and violence erupted. To enforce federal law, President Dwight Eisenhower sent the 101^st Airborne Division to protect the students, who entered the school and began attending classes. Tensions remained at the high school for some time, but an important first step in school integration had been taken.

Central High School is an operating public school and is not open for visitors to tour on their own. Ranger-guided tours are limited to groups of 10 or fewer and reservations must be made two weeks in advance. The best place to begin your visit is to go to the park visitor center, across from the school. Exhibits tell the story of those times, and interactive oral history stations give you a chance to hear the people who were there tell the story in their own words. 

Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site is a unit of the National Park Service. It was chosen for inclusion in the African American Civil Rights Network in October 2019.

A project through the African American Civil Rights Grant Program, which works to document, interpret, and preserve the sites and stories related to the African American struggle to gain equal rights, funded work to rehabilitate Little Rock Central High School. The project focused on repairing and replacing windows on the front façade of the building to help preserve this historic landmark for future generations of students. 

The African American Civil Rights Network (AACRN) recognizes the civil rights movement in the United States and the sacrifices made by those who fought against discrimination and segregation. Created by the African American Civil Rights Act of 2017, and coordinated by the National Park Service, the Network tells the stories of the people, places, and events of the modern U.S. civil rights movement from 1939 -1968 through a collection of public and private elements.