The shrieking white crowds, the armed soldiers, the recalcitrant governor and the nine black teenagers who dared to attend all-white Central High School tell the story of civil rights in America at a new visitors center.
The visitors center for the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site opens next Monday, in time for 50th anniversary observances of the school desegregation crisis.
At the press of a button, visitors will hear the story of September 1957 in the words of the Little Rock Nine, white students, teachers, parents, soldiers, and news reporters.
Archival photographs and film capture scenes from the year; interpretive text on the movement and quotations from civil rights workers express the struggle.
Parks Superintendent Michael Madell said the U.S. Parks Service project represented three years of work done in about a year and a half. Congress appropriated $6 million for the project.
The 10,078 square-foot building, across the street from Central High School, replaces a center that could barely accommodate staff or the 45,000 visitors who toured the site last year. The building is about five times larger than the current center, a renovated Mobil station that will be converted for use in educational programs.
“What resulted is absolutely phenomenal,” Madell said. “I feel very good about it.”
