Today we visited two Little Rock high schools, the first. First we toured historic Little Rock Central high school, than we stopped by Dunbar High School. Little Rock Central’s building was magnificent, built in 1920 for 1.5 million dollars it was the most expensive American high school to date. Dunbar was constructed in the 1950’s, using funds of .5 million dollars left over from the building of Central High. The stark difference between the two was that Central high was designed as a white school and Dunbar a black school in segregated Arkansas. This fact was evident through many facets of the two schools, Central was bigger, more extravagant and better maintained, while Dunbar had police security and had a more modest appearance. The importance of Little Rock Central is that it was the first Little Rock high school to be desegregated in the 1950’s. The famous Little Rock nine and others after them trail blazed the path for integration, persevering through harsh racism and radical hatred from there classmates in order to complete high school. We met with Cybil Hampton after touring Little Rock central who extrapolated upon her experience in integration. She emphasized the power of hope and pursuing change. All in all, today built upon my previous knowledge of segregated America. The struggles of integration were emphasized. I left with the sentiment that one must work to affect positive change.
Ben Busch, Park School
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