About Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site
Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site preserves and interprets one of the defining confrontations of the American Civil Rights Movement. In September 1957, nine African American students attempted to integrate the previously all-white Central High School after Brown v. Board of Education. Resistance by Arkansas officials and hostile crowds culminated in President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalizing the Arkansas National Guard and sending members of the 101st Airborne Division to protect the students as they entered the school. The crisis became a major test of whether federal court orders and constitutional civil rights would be enforced.
Visitors begin at the National Park Service visitor center across from Central High School, where exhibits place the Little Rock Nine, the desegregation crisis, and its national consequences in context. The surrounding site includes outdoor interpretive areas such as the Commemorative Garden, the Elizabeth Eckford commemorative bench, the historic Magnolia/Mobil gas station area, and designated portions of the school grounds. Central High remains an active public high school, so general interior access is not available; ranger-led interpretive programs are offered by advance reservation. The site is especially compelling because visitors encounter the history in the exact landscape where the events unfolded.
