Two photos from Little Rock, Arkansas, taken today.
The magnificent Little Rock Central High School, scene of one of the first great segregation confrontations when, nearly 50 years ago, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus resisted the enrollment of African-American students in the previously all-white school. Ultimately President Dwight Eisenhower sent 1,000 members of the 101st Airborne to help maintain order.
Nine students enrolled that September (1957).
The original nine are portrayed by this artwork on the north side of the Arkansas State Capitol. With each is a plaque with a current quotation or remark, many of them moving.
Driving around Little Rock (or anywhere) most of us realize how far America still needs to go on matters of race. Even so, for one like NewMexiKen who can remember that original confrontation 49 years ago, the commemoration of the students at the Capitol is remarkable.