Little Rock CentralHigh School

National Park ServiceU.S. Department of the Interior

Little Rock Central High School NationalHistoric Site

Bicycle Tours

Map created by Little Rock Central High School EAST Lab students.

The tour is approximately 7.4miles long. Before you embarkon the tour, follow these safetytips:

Wear a helmet at all times.

Drink plenty of water.

Ensure your tires are properlyinflated and your chain is oiled.

Remember that you are ridingon city streets. Always ride withthe traffic and yield to pedestri-ans.

Join park rangers for a guided bicycle tour or strike out on your own to discover sitesrelated to the 1957 desegregation crisis at Little Rock Central High School. For moreinformation, call 501 -374- 1957.

Safety Checklist

Sites of Interest Duringthe 1957 Crisis

1. Little Rock Central High School NationalHistoric Site Visitor Center2125 Daisy L. Gatson Bates DriveHoused in a former Mobil gas station, the visitorcenter tells the story of the integration of CentralHigh School in 1957 through exhibits and ranger-led programs.

2. Little Rock Central High School1500 S. Park StreetCentral functioned as an al l-white high schoolfor thirty years before Little Rock began integrat -ing its schools in 1957. Central served as thebackdrop for one of the most pivotal moments inour nation’s history when the Little Rock Ninebecame the first African Americans to attend theschool under federal troop protection. CentralHigh remains an operating high school today.

3. Ponder’s Drug StoreSoutheast corner of Park & 16th StreetsAfter being turned away from Central HighSchool by the Arkansas National Guard onSeptember 4, 1957, Elizabeth Eckford attemptedto use the telephone at Ponder’s Drug Store tocall for a taxi. The owner of the store, seeing themob behind her, locked the door before Eckfordcould enter. She had no choice but to face themob until a bus arrived at the bus stop that wouldtake her to safety.

4. Daisy & L.C. Bates Home1207 W. 28th StreetDaisy Bates and her husband, L.C., were civilrights pioneers in Arkansas. L.C. Bates ownedand edited the largest African-American newspa-per in Arkansas, the Arkansas State Press. DaisyBates served as the president of the stateconference of the NAACP’s Arkansas branches.Her duties with the NAACP led her to become amentor and advocate for the Little Rock Nine.Throughout the 1957 crisis, the Bates’s home wasunder attack for their courageous stand insupport of civil rights. Today, Arkansas observesa state holiday in honor of Daisy Bates, and theBates’s home was declared a National HistoricLandmark in 2002.

5. Paul Laurence Dunbar High School1100 Wright AvenueBuilt in 1929, Dunbar High School was the mostmodern and complete high school constructedfor African Americans in the state. Dunbarhoused a junior high school as well as a juniorcollege. In 1955 Dunbar became strictly a juniorhigh whenHorace Mann High School opened asthe new high school for African Americans.Today, Dunbar is a Magnet Middle School.

Dunbar was listed on the National Register ofHistoric Places in 1980.

6. Governor’s Mansion1800 Center StreetUntil 1950, no official residence existed forArkansas’s chief executive. Construction beganfor the Georgian-style structure in 1947 on thesite of the former School for the Blind. OrvalFaubus was the third governor to reside in theGovernor’s Mansion from 1955 to 1967.

7. Terry Mansion (Decorative Arts Museum)411 E. 7th StreetInfuriated by the failed leadership from both theprivate and public sectors of Little Rock inSeptember 1958, a group of women met atAdolphine Fletcher Terry’s home to form theWomen’s Emergency Committee to Open OurSchools (WEC.) The WEC became the firstorganization to publicly condemn GovernorFaubus’s closing of Little Rock’s high schools,and worked to turn the tide of public opinion infavor of reopening the schools.

8. Federal District Courthouse700 W. Capitol AvenueDuring the tumultuous 1957-58 school year theLittle Rock School Board sought to delayintegration until 1961. The NAACP challengedthis move in federal court in the case of Aaronv. Cooper. The court ruled in favor of theschool board but the 8th Circuit Court ofAppeals reversed that decision in 1957. Theschool board appealed to the United StatesSupreme Court, which affirmed the AppealsCourt decision and ordered the Little RockSchool Board to continue with itsdesegregation plan on September 12, 1958. Thatsame day Governor Orval Faubus signedlegislation closing Little Rock’s high schoolspending a public vote on integrating all of theschools.

9. Arkansas State Capitol and Little RockNine Statues - 1 Capitol MallDesigned and conceived by Arkansas artist JohnDeering, “Testament” is the official state recog-nition of the Little Rock Nine. The nine st u -dents are looking up at Governor Faubus’soffice where he signed the order that sent theNational Guard to halt integration at CentralHigh School. “Testament” is the first com -memoration of civil rights pioneers by any state.Arkansans witnessed the Little Rock Ninereunite in August 2005 to dedicate the statueshonoring their accomplishments.

E X P E R I E N C E Y O U R A M E R I C A

Little Rock Central HighSchool

Paul Laurence Dunbar HighSchool (now Magnet MiddleSchool)

Daisy Bates Home NationalHistoric Landmark

Terry Mansion (ArkansasArts Center’s DecorativeArts Museum)

“Testament” by John Deering.Photo courtesy Arkansas Secretary ofState’s Office.