November 20th

Kara's birthday!  Yay - sent her a little egift , , ,
Today I visited the Central High School historical site - it's a building housing lots of info in the form of videos and photos and audio about the 1957 desegregation issue - and the Little Rock Nine.  I spent about three hours there, watching and listening.  Incredible stuff - lots of commentary by members of the Nine, who remain very good friends, after their ordeal all those years ago.   I had, of course, heard about the crisis, but this info was different - the interviews and personal stories took me right inside the times - and of course, being a teacher, I have a different perspective on the whole situation.  I wonder how I would have handled myself in that dreadful time - and I can just imagine the toll this whole thing took on people's families.  White students who were brave enough to accept the Nine were threatened - and their families were threatened - it was a really incredible mess! The Visitor Center succeeded in portraying those times in such a very personal, individual way. What started out as a national political attempt to desegregate schools in the states played out in a violent, vicious, degenerate way at the local level in Little Rock.  The impact of those years on the city was devastating - businesses in the other states refused to deal with businesses in Little Rock, appalled as they were with the nastiness of the crowds of white citizens. In the end, it worked, though - the rest of the states eventually desegregated schools across the nation - due in large part to those nine black students who went through hell for at least one year - three years for one of them - until they graduated.  Quite the day!
I spent the rest of the day just driving around, exploring the city.  Can`t really get my head around this city - really quite poor in a lot of places - looks like there may still be some racism going on here, although certainly not officially . . .  I stopped at a liquor store to pick up some kahlua - they don`t sell liquers in the grocery stores - and noted the iron mesh covering all the doors and windows.

Google Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas, and this is what you``ll see!

This gas station is also an historic site - some of the mob of people gathered there in 1957, I guess. It`s right across the street from the school

Significant street signs - Daisy Bates was instrumental in the whole 1957 crisis

The neighbourhood

Liquor store with metal mesh - actually. every store in this strip mall had the mesh on windows and doors

I`m a little obsessed with the Clinton Pedestrian Bridge over the Arkansas River

Starting the lights- red, white, and blue

With the reflection on the water, it`s even more impressive!