Little Rock Central High Desegregation Crisis 50th Anniversary Events Sidebar
February 19: The Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site will celebrate the statewide Daisy Bates holiday. Sheila Arnold, an interpretative actress, will re-enact the colorful and eventful life of Daisy Bates, a leading figure in the desegregation process in the 1950s. Bates served as a mentor to the Little Rock Nine students in September 1957. The 1 p.m. free presentation will be held at the Historic Site Visitor Center, 2125 Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive, across the street from the high school.
March 10-11: “The Reel Civil Rights” Film Festival, a partnership of Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Market Street Cinema and the Ozark Foothills Film Fest, will showcase various movies dealing with race relations in America. All will be shown at the Market Street Cinema at 1521 Merrill Drive in west Little Rock. The showings are ticketed events but are free and open to the public. Show times have yet to be determined.
Films on the schedule include the Peabody Award-Winning film “The Ernest Green Story” from Disney Productions depicting the life of Green, one of the Little Rock Nine. Green was the only senior in the group of nine thus becoming the first black to graduate from Little Rock Central.
Another Disney production, “Ruby Bridges,” will also be shown. Ruby Nell Bridges made history by becoming the first black to attend an all-white elementary school in New Orleans. On November 14, 1960, Ruby entered William Frantz Elementary School, an action brought about by a federal court order to desegregate the city’s schools. Norman Rockwell later used Ruby’s walk as the basis for one of his famous paintings which appeared in Look magazine.
“Journey to Little Rock: The Untold Story of Minnijean Brown Trickey” was produced in Canada where Trickey lived during the Vietnam War. The film follows her life of social activism which began as a member of the Little Rock Nine. She and her husband were active in the student nonviolence movement, promoting peace and civil rights. She continues her activism today by supporting civil rights efforts for their rights and promoting environmental causes.
"Hoxie: The First Stand" is an award-winning documentary about one of the earliest civil rights battles in the country. This Arkansas school board decided in the summer of 1955 to voluntarily desegregate their schools as a result of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision. The problems which ensued led local segregationist leaders to turn on then Governor Orval Faubus in the next election. This challenge forced Faubus to change his formerly moderate stance on desegregation and laid the groundwork for the 1957 confrontation in Little Rock.
“The Lost Year” refers to the 1958-59 school year when Governor Faubus closed all Little Rock high schools, keeping 3,665 black and white students from receiving a public education. The documentary film by Sandra Hubbard, who was one of the “lost year” students, tells the stories of both teachers and the students and how they obtained their education during that year.
An award-winning student-produced film, "A Girl Like Me” by Kiri Davis sprang from a high school literature class project. She began by conducting interviews of various black girls in her school and as a result, a number of issues dealing with society’s standards of beauty imposed on them and how it affects their self image arose. Davis then decided it would make an interesting film. She also decided to re-conduct the “doll test” initially done by Dr. Kenneth Clark, which was used in the historic desegregation case, Brown vs. Board of Education. Davis thought by including this experiment in the film, it “would shed new light on how society affects black children today, and how little has actually changed.”
August 10 – November 4: The Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock will host a special exhibit featuring the award-winning works of photographers Will Counts and Ernest Withers, both of whom documented the 1957 events for prosperity. Counts was an employee of the Arkansas Democrat who took the famous photograph of Elizabeth Eckford that so aptly illustrated the volatility of the time. The photo was used worldwide and earned Counts a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Withers, a prominent black freelance photographer from Memphis, documented the highs and lows of the Civil Rights movement.
September 21 – 22: Little Rock’s 2007 edition of World Fest will be expanded to two days and will be held at MacArthur Park. Information on equal rights and human rights will be added to the event in honor of the anniversary, to go along with the regular schedule of international food, music, games, community booths, demonstrations and animals. There will also be an art contest, fishing derby and Arkansas schools will display information about their assigned country.
For more information on any of these events call (501) 374-1957 or e-mail CHSC_Visitor_Center@nps.gov.
02/07
March 10-11: “The Reel Civil Rights” Film Festival, a partnership of Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Market Street Cinema and the Ozark Foothills Film Fest, will showcase various movies dealing with race relations in America. All will be shown at the Market Street Cinema at 1521 Merrill Drive in west Little Rock. The showings are ticketed events but are free and open to the public. Show times have yet to be determined.
Films on the schedule include the Peabody Award-Winning film “The Ernest Green Story” from Disney Productions depicting the life of Green, one of the Little Rock Nine. Green was the only senior in the group of nine thus becoming the first black to graduate from Little Rock Central.
Another Disney production, “Ruby Bridges,” will also be shown. Ruby Nell Bridges made history by becoming the first black to attend an all-white elementary school in New Orleans. On November 14, 1960, Ruby entered William Frantz Elementary School, an action brought about by a federal court order to desegregate the city’s schools. Norman Rockwell later used Ruby’s walk as the basis for one of his famous paintings which appeared in Look magazine.
“Journey to Little Rock: The Untold Story of Minnijean Brown Trickey” was produced in Canada where Trickey lived during the Vietnam War. The film follows her life of social activism which began as a member of the Little Rock Nine. She and her husband were active in the student nonviolence movement, promoting peace and civil rights. She continues her activism today by supporting civil rights efforts for their rights and promoting environmental causes.
"Hoxie: The First Stand" is an award-winning documentary about one of the earliest civil rights battles in the country. This Arkansas school board decided in the summer of 1955 to voluntarily desegregate their schools as a result of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision. The problems which ensued led local segregationist leaders to turn on then Governor Orval Faubus in the next election. This challenge forced Faubus to change his formerly moderate stance on desegregation and laid the groundwork for the 1957 confrontation in Little Rock.
“The Lost Year” refers to the 1958-59 school year when Governor Faubus closed all Little Rock high schools, keeping 3,665 black and white students from receiving a public education. The documentary film by Sandra Hubbard, who was one of the “lost year” students, tells the stories of both teachers and the students and how they obtained their education during that year.
An award-winning student-produced film, "A Girl Like Me” by Kiri Davis sprang from a high school literature class project. She began by conducting interviews of various black girls in her school and as a result, a number of issues dealing with society’s standards of beauty imposed on them and how it affects their self image arose. Davis then decided it would make an interesting film. She also decided to re-conduct the “doll test” initially done by Dr. Kenneth Clark, which was used in the historic desegregation case, Brown vs. Board of Education. Davis thought by including this experiment in the film, it “would shed new light on how society affects black children today, and how little has actually changed.”
August 10 – November 4: The Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock will host a special exhibit featuring the award-winning works of photographers Will Counts and Ernest Withers, both of whom documented the 1957 events for prosperity. Counts was an employee of the Arkansas Democrat who took the famous photograph of Elizabeth Eckford that so aptly illustrated the volatility of the time. The photo was used worldwide and earned Counts a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Withers, a prominent black freelance photographer from Memphis, documented the highs and lows of the Civil Rights movement.
September 21 – 22: Little Rock’s 2007 edition of World Fest will be expanded to two days and will be held at MacArthur Park. Information on equal rights and human rights will be added to the event in honor of the anniversary, to go along with the regular schedule of international food, music, games, community booths, demonstrations and animals. There will also be an art contest, fishing derby and Arkansas schools will display information about their assigned country.
For more information on any of these events call (501) 374-1957 or e-mail CHSC_Visitor_Center@nps.gov.
02/07
Submitted by the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism
One Capitol Mall, Little Rock, AR 72201, 501-682-7606
E-mail: info@arkansas.com
May be used without permission. Credit line is appreciated:
"Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism"