Little Rock Nine 50th Anniversary
Sep 25th, 2007 by Bethany
Today is the 50th anniversary of the "Little Rock Nine" incident at Central High School. The Little Rock Nine was mentioned in my history classes in high school, but only briefly, and I'd probably heard of it on NPR before, and I seem to remember seeing a movie that referred to the situation. So it was on my radar, but only just.
Maybe it's just the anniversary of the event making waves, but the Nine are a really BIG deal here. Those who like them and are impressed with them are loud about it, while I've found that those who aren't pleased about them are pretty quiet about it unless you catch them in a place where they feel safe. Today during the commemoration ceremony and speeches I was watching the news coverage of it on TV while I waited for my car to be serviced. I didn't pick the channel, it was on when I walked in, but I was interested in the story and the history of it all. Another (older) lady who was waiting for her car came into the waiting room and cooed over my babies, then surprised me by turning to the TV and angrily saying "Even after 50 years they won't stop griping!" I asked her if she was around when it all happened and she said yes, that her kids were starting first grade that year and that "ever since all the schools have gone downhill."
I like to consider myself not racist. I think that the way people act and think, not their skin color, is an indicator of how good they are. I have and have had good friends who are black, Asian, Hispanic, and probably whatever else you want to bring up. The way someone talks, the way they dress, the way they walk, the opinions they express are all better indicators (even if they aren't great indicators alone) to me of whether I want to spend time with them than race. That said, I've surprised myself by experiencing some crazy culture shock here in Arkansas. It seems like everyone considers race here as a core point of every problem. Black people think white people are out to get them. White people think black people are out to get everybody. No one notes the problem with their attitude about who is the problem.
Anyway, I watched the Little Rock Nine (Colin comments that "they're not so little anymore") give short speeches today about how much we still need to improve our attitudes about race and education and I didn't disagree with any of that, but I wasn't terribly inspired either. One of them recognized former President Clinton who was on the stage with them as "the tenth member of the Little Rock Nine" and that was kind of weird.
I don't know a whole lot about the Little Rock Nine, except that 50 years ago the courts ordered Central High to integrate, a bunch of white people threatened to riot and hurt people, the Governor decided to postpone the integration and enforce it with the National Guard, then Pres. Eisenhower sent in the Army to integrate the school, and nine black students went to school at Central High under extremely perilous circumstances. I'm glad that the schools are "integrated" officially, although when I drive by I notice that the neighborhood is run down and there are no white people around so I question whether it's integrated more than officially. I'm impressed at the courage it took, though I wonder at whether their parents were crazy to get their children to risk their lives.
For anyone who wonders, racism still exists among both white people and black people. But it doesn't seem to help to talk about it and how bad it is. It seems to me that one thing that helps is people of each race living good, responsible lives, caring for each other, and setting a good example. Part of the reason I know black people are good is because of the black people I know who are good and hopefully the black people I know have had a good experience with me and know that white people can be good, too. I realize that's a simplistic way of looking at things, but it is as start and it's something I can do myself and something anyone else can do.
Colin called me on his way to work this morning to tell me that the radio said that Central High is nearly 50% white. Neither of us could figure out how that works since we’ve only seen black people on the campus and his middle school that feeds into Central is probably about 90% black. But, perhaps the statistics are correct and I’ve just driven by Central at the time of day when all the white kids are inside or have gone home and I got the wrong idea. It’s only pertinent because in my post I mentioned that I don’t think Central is really integrated now, but it seems that they may be after all.