Posts Tagged With: The Little Rock Nine

Little Rock, AR Monday, November 11

Lake Catherine hike

We finished up our stay at Lake Catherine State Park with a two-mile morning hike. It was back to the stony, boulder, exposed tree roots path up and down the holler. Weather was great, it is supposed to be cold (relatively speaking) and wet tomorrow so we enjoyed the day.

Remmel Dam power plant

As mentioned before, Lake Catherine was formed by a dam back in the 1920s. Our walk today brought us to see the dam and power plant from the other side of the lake. The water level is down, on purpose. Every fall they lower the lake level by five feet to help control algae and allow for dock maintenance.

Lake Catherine hike

Lake Catherine hike

Then it was on to Little Rock. We had lunch at a local chain, the Dixie Cafe. Reasonable food and low prices. The Capitol was our afternoon destination, we thought it was more likely to benefit from an outdoor picture than our other destinations. We had checked and it was supposed to be open on holidays. We arrived and the Capitol building was open but no tours were being given. We took our photos and will plan to return Tuesday after we tour the Clinton Presidential Library.

Arkansas State Capitol

Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site was our next destination. Now I hope our younger readers covered civil rights in their American History classes. It is too complex to cover or summarize briefly in this posting. Suffice it to say, in 1957 nine African-American students were to be the first to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School. It did not go well.

Sculpture of the Little Rock Nine

The historic site is located across the street from the high school which is still functioning. There are multi-media displays depicting the events, the media coverage, details about the nine students and their lives after 1957, and how people reacted individually to the situation. Some coverage of other civil rights actions was also presented. It was powerful and sad.

We are at a Residence Inn for two nights. Tonight and tomorrow the hotel offers a manager’s reception from 6 to 7:30 so we receive free dinner along with the normal free breakfast.

Ed and Chris Nov. 11 8 pm