Arkansas’s Central High a ‘Top Ten’ site on new US Civil Rights Trail

Visitors can literally walk in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, John Lewis and other African American activists, thanks to the U.S. Civil Rights Trail that launched today, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 15, 2018. Arkansas Tourism and the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau announced the state’s participation in the project during a press conference this morning.

Central High School National Historic Site in Little Rock is one of the “Top Ten” sites on the trail, which links the country’s most important civil rights sites: more than 100 landmarks, including museums, churches, courthouses and memorials that were pivotal to the advancement of social equality during the volatile 1950s and 1960s.

Other Arkansas sites on the trail are:

1. Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail: The trail marks sites in Little Rock that were significant to the Civil Rights Movement. It starts at the Old State House and will eventually end at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum. Visitors can enhance the experience by downloading the Arkansas Civil Rights History Tour app.
2. Clinton Presidential Center: The Presidential Library of Bill Clinton resides within the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park. The library chronicles Bill Clinton’s presidency and includes replicas of the Oval Office and Cabinet Room, and on its grounds you can also find the Anne Frank Tree Exhibit that conveys the complex history of human rights in Arkansas.
3. Daisy Bates House: The home of Daisy Bates, who was president of the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP and liaison for the Little Rock Nine, was vandalized and bombed by those against integration. Her prominence as one of the few female civil rights leaders of the period was recognized by her selection as the only female to speak at the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. The home is also a National Historic Landmark.
4. Little Rock Nine Memorial: A trip to the Capitol is not complete without a stop at the Little Rock Nine Memorial, a testament to the nine African-American students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School.
5. Mosaic Templars Cultural Center: The museum features exhibits on African-American entrepreneurs and innovators, fraternal organizations and racial integration. It also offers a variety of educational resources.

In addition to the Arkansas locations, the trail’s famous sites include the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., the Greensboro, N.C., Woolworth’s, where sit-ins began, the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., and King’s birthplace in Atlanta, Ga.

The website www.CivilRightsTrail.com profiles these landmarks and offers an interactive map, interviews with foot soldiers, past and present photographs and 360-degree video. Featured on the site is Little Rock resident Sybil Jordan Hampton, along with Katherine Sawyer of Topeka and Dorothy Lockett Holcomb of Farmville, who discuss their experiences during school integration after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education court decision.

Led by the Alabama Tourism Department, the 12 state tourism agencies known collectively as TravelSouth USA, including Arkansas Tourism, created the trail list and developed marketing materials for the project.

The U.S. Civil Rights Trail has been featured in The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, The Wall Street Journal and The Telegraph in London.