Central High School

     Central high school was build in the late 1920s and became the premiere white high school in Arkansas. In 1957, nine black students enrolled in Central high with the intentions to receive a quality education from one of the leading schools in the the area.
     On the first day of class in 1957, Elizabeth Eckford walked up to Central high to be greeted by a mob of protesters and the National Guard sent by the governor of Arkansas to bar the nine's entrance.
     It wasn't until three weeks later that the nine would actually attend their first classes under the executive order of President Eisenhower and an escort from the 101st Airborne division. The year that followed would test the resolve of the nine black students that endured verbal and physical torment from their peers.The only senior of the nine, Ernest Green, would go on to walk at graduation that spring, with Martin Luther King, jr. in the crowd watching.
     After that year, Central high and every other public high school in Little Rock closed by order of the governor. Many students moved away to finish school elsewhere. When the school reopened, the movement to integrate continued slowly, and it wasn't until 1972 that it was considered officially intergrated.
     The role Central high school played in desegregation did not end with the Little Rock nine. It was later established as a magnet school with several different programs. Magnet schools were historically established to combat the de facto segregration caused by the white flight to the suburbs. These schools received federal funding to bus students to school that lived outside the boundaries of the school or even outside the district.
     Today Central high school still stands as the premiere high school in Arkansas. In its halls you'll find a rich history of racism, the fight for racial equality, and eventually acceptance. This year, the funding for Central high's magnet programs will end. It will be interesting to see what will be in store for Central high in the coming years.

Ellen Herbig