Little Rock, Ark. – This time around, the Little Rock Nine pulled up at the high school in three white stretch limousines.
Five decades ago, they had to walk through a gantlet of jeering whites spewing venomous threats. Tuesday, fans swarmed them for autographs and pictures. News crews lobbed softball questions. In front of a crowd of 5,000 people, dignitaries including former President Clinton, governors, congressmen and the mayor were on hand to laud their bravery in desegregating the school.
The nine former students had returned to the campus of Little Rock Central High School a half-century after President Eisenhower had to order soldiers to escort them into the school.
“We thought this was a place that would accept us,” one of the nine, Ernest Green, told the crowd. “And you know what? Fifty years later, I think we were right!”
It was a day of unmitigated adulation for the nine, and a day of recognition of how much their determination to attend the school had propelled the desegregation movement forward.
Their decision to attend despite the dangers, backed by the federal show of force, made it clear throughout the nation that the 1954 Supreme Court ruling of Brown vs. Board of Education would be enforced.
But off the podium here, in private conversations, there was also concern that their achievements had been in part undone by other social changes. Many school districts around the country, for instance, are becoming more segregated along racial lines.
“The forces that resisted the desegregation of Little Rock have never stopped fighting,” Jesse Jackson said. “Those who rejected the dream are still rejecting the dream.”
The high point of desegregation in the Little Rock School District came in 1980, when the average black student attended a school that was 50 percent white. Today, the average black student attends a school that is 20 percent white.
The student body at Little Rock Central High School is 53 percent black, 40 percent white and 7 percent other.
Gary Orfield, a professor of education at UCLA, attributed the change in Little Rock’s school district to decades of court rulings and other changes that, as of June, prohibit school districts from considering race in drawing up school attendance plans.
“Little Rock is in the same situation that a lot of the South is,” he said. “There’s no court order to integrate anymore, and the school board doesn’t have any right to take any action to integrate based on race. It probably means it will become more segregated.”
None of this changed the ebullient mood of Tuesday’s commemoration.
“This day should be about gratitude for all of us,” Clinton told the crowd. But while Clinton received warm applause, the brief appearances by the nine captivated the audience. They are an accomplished group, with numerous bachelor’s and master’s degrees among them.
“I am grateful that my country is reconsidering its past,” said Gloria Ray Karlmark, whose career has included being a schoolteacher, systems analyst and technical writer. “A mistake was made and we’re dealing with it. That’s the American way.”
