Little Rock Nine and the Clinton Center

Oh my goodness is Little Rock, Arkansas, not what I expected. Not that that sets the bar high, seeing as how the main thing I was looking forward to was its cheese dip (which did not disappoint). Still, “better than cheese dip” is not a bad motto.

We’ve done so much in just a few days here, so I’ll tell you about the main stuff now and describe where we’re camped and my impressions of the city in my next post. As usual, I’m going to risk looking like an idiot with my own viewpoints in these posts. As if calling such an historic town “better than cheese dip” didn’t already make that happen.

Little Rock Nine 

I knew from history class (or from that Cult of Personality MTV video?) about the high school students who turned the other cheek against violence and chronic bullying to break segregation at a huge high school here after Brown v. Board of Education, but it turns out I didn’t know much. 

We toured the visitor center of the national historic site, which was a jaw-dropping immersion into the personal—as well as the political and social—backstory and events around the first day of school for these Black teenagers.  

You probably know more than I did when I walked in, so I’ll just tell you about what surprised me.  

One way NAACP lawyers argued that separate does not mean equal during the Brown v. Board of Education trial in 1954 was to cite a 1940s psychological experiment where children (both Black and white) identified more with white dolls and said that Black dolls were “bad.” Okay, that segregation damages black children’s self-esteem doesn’t surprise me, but what I was struck by is that we accepted such things as scientifically proven as far back as 1940s.  So, our society has been science deniers for a long time.  (Heck, really since the beginning of the scientific method, but this knowledge was so immediate for me on display and made quite the impression.)

Another take-away from the center was that the governor of Arkansas not only called in the National Guard to keep Black students from attending the white school, but he went on live television the day before the first day of school and called for citizens to protest and keep the students away. In response, President Eisenhower had to call in a division of the Army to protect the teenagers so they could get in and out of the building. What if the Arkansas guy calling for a riot and backing it up with the National Guard were the President? Well, that happened, some 60 years later.  

I learned that the mob of protesters tried to get to the students, but the ~300 members of the press trying to take photos of and speak with the Black students surrounded them and created a barrier. So the mob turned on the press and beat the crap out of them.  One of the Black students said she hadn’t even been aware of the violence until she’d gotten home, she was that buffered by journalists.  And we know the effect those hard-won photos had on white and black America who hadn’t seen Blacks portrayed like this before.   

After that day and then a lot of delay, once the Black students returned to school, the white students tormented them in an organized way, with student leaders handing out cards to bullies encouraging them to count how many Blacks they’d kicked that day. They’d also get stamps on their cards for bullying whites who befriended the Blacks.  Now, I knew something like this had happened, but to see the cards and stamps is shocking.  

The testimonials from the nine about how they endured abuse and persevered to graduate reveal astoundingly level-headed, driven, selfless children and their families. The best of one community was pitted against the worst of another, and the best came out on top. 

By the time I left, though, I couldn’t stop thinking about parallels with the way people today use the constitution and Christianity to justify their personal hatred.  Protest signs from that day saying “INTEGRATION IS UNCHRISTIAN” and blaming integration on communism look too much like signs today on any damned topic people want to put forward with their own agenda.  It’s infuriating. 

I was humbled, inspired, and made fearful.  That’s an amazingly moving exhibit. 

Bill Clinton Presidential Center and Park

This one surprised me, too! We walked over the river to tour the Presidential library and museum because admission was free on Bill Clinton’s observed birthday, and, again, so much more than I expected.  

The exterior looks like a spaceship that landed to overhang the Arkansas River; Clinton chose the site and developed the gardens, and he picked out his future gravesite under a giant oak tree.  I beat my friend Doug to the punch on visiting this President’s gravesite!

The interior was designed after the famous Long Room, the library of the Trinity College Dublin.

Instead of seeing shelves upon shelves of books, you peer down at rows of displays: one display per year of the Presidency, with photos and documents and video detailing the President’s accomplishments, plus a shelf of binders containing his daily schedules for that whole year.  

Lots of info on the Middle East and the economy, of course, plus a long display of letters people wrote to the President.  I liked this hand-written one by Fred Rodgers.

Upstairs is Clinton’s private apartment and offices overlooking the gardens.

Below are reproductions of the Oval Office and Cabinet Room. Tracy didn’t give a damn about these, spending more time on the archived info, but I was impressed with the sense of grandeur from the architecture and interior design.  

Plus, the name plates installed on the back of all the chairs in the Cabinet Room are all interesting: the ones to the right of the President remain the same, but who has has sitting where to the left of him is up to him.  

I’ve never been to the White House, so I soaked this up.  

I walked back to the trailer from the Presidential Center across this gorgeous bridge.

I’ll tell you about that next time.