Little Rock Central High School

Today we visited the museum at Little Rock's Central High School. I was only 12 when the desegregation crisis happened in Little Rock in 1957. I only remember reading a little about it in history books over the years and definitely learned more about it while we have been here. The "Little Rock Nine", as the students were known, are all still alive and were in Little Rock recently for a panel at the Clinton Library. I can't imagine the guts those kids had to do what they did. What a sad time in our history. I certainly had my share of discrimination as a female in a man's business world but nothing like what they went through. The school is the only functioning high school to be located within the boundary of a national historic site and it's also a national park. The school is just enormous! It is on 22 acres, 600,000 sq ft, 5 stories, 100 class rooms and 2 large wings besides the main building shown above. The cost in 1927 to build it was $1.5 million dollars and was the largest high school in the United States when it was built. Today, the student body is kept at 2,500 and with 31 AP classes. It is consistently ranked in the top 50 high schools in the country.