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DOUGHERTY: Central anniversary -- lessons if we want them |
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Tuesday, 25 September 2007 |
 DOUGHERTYSome people here say they believe this newspaper is running (and writing, in my case) too much about the 50th anniversary of the Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis.
Hmmm. I wonder why they say that. Some say that we’re a local paper and that the Central crisis had no real bearing on Saline County — “The Courier is a local paper,” they bark. “The state paper and the Little Rock TV stations are running all people can stand of that stuff.”
Others say “enough already.”
I believe they may feel and think differently.
Can it be that some are still embarrassed — as Arkansans — how people in those crowds around Central behaved in September 1957?
Is it that they know they — or at least some family members — still feel that way to some degree and don’t like being singled out for that belief?
Or is it strictly the somewhat unsettling realization that the Central crisis in ’57 and the takeover by Little Rock School District of some of Pulaski County’s best schools 30 years later were factors in forcing white flight to the southwest and that Saline County and its communities were financial beneficiaries of that movement?
Saline County is at the 100,000-population level, Benton’s at 26,000 and Bryant’s at 15,000 because people moved here for what real estate agents like to tell people are our “good schools.” They are good schools. So are Harmony Grove and Bauxite. But good schools also became code for mostly white schools.
It was understood.
Does that make it wrong? Or bad? Not necessarily. But let’s not kid ourselves about why we have grown or why we are situated geographically and economically to take an even bigger step as society adjusts itself yet again.
Neighborhoods change and cities change. Just as southwest Little Rock was once the place to move for middle class families, our communities have become such places now. I know, like a lot of you who once lived there, that my parents moved there because McClellan High School was a brand new school with the latest in every kind of technology — even the latest in school architecture (no windows). They wanted my brothers and me to have the best opportunity possible. They also likely were fearful that our old “home place” on Dixon Road was in an area where the schools, Fuller High School then Mills High School, were being left behind — and was being more and more populated by black people.
Let’s just be honest about the situation and make it a good place to live for everyone. Otherwise, the same thing can happen here.
History is interesting, even when it is embarrassing and a black eye, as Central is for many Arkansans.
Acknowledging the 50th anniversary does no good if it doesn’t cause us to at least look at what happened and then consider where we are now.
We aren’t all going to agree in making that assessment and we aren’t going to agree on where we should be. I acknowledge that some people don’t have a problem with what happened at Central High School and don’t care if little progress has been made in black-white relations.
Some do care, however. Progress has been made, but not enough. We don’t do enough in undoing prejudices that have been passed down for generations. Make no mistake, prejudice of any form is taught, often through ignorance and fear. None of us — black, white, Hispanic or Asian — do enough in bridging the gap to show that we can get along as neighbors and co-workers.
The friendships that develop can be wonderful relationships. And that’s the great thing that can happen by taking a few minutes to actually think about what happened at Central High School 50 years ago today.
Would you have been in the angry crowd if you had been there? Would you be if it happened today? My honest answers would be possibly and no. I’ll have to live with that because it’s the truth.
Mike Dougherty is city editor of the Courier. His column appears Sunday, Thursday and some days in between.
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