WIDE RANGE
of events set for anniversary.
Here are some of the events going on for the 60th anniversary of the integration of Little Rock Central High School. Information on the times, dates, locations and participants are provided by various organizations that established the events, including the city, Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Save Our Schools, Grassroots Arkansas and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
TODAY
Dedication of Clay Enoch’s United sculpture, 1:30-2 p.m., Little Rock Central High School. Allegorical figures raise their arms to interlock their respective rings in the effort to be “United.”
SATURDAY
Reflections of Progress symposium, 9-11:30 a.m., Clinton Presidential Center. This forum will look at the events leading up to September 1957, the 1957-1958 school year and the “Lost Year” in 1958-1959, and the process of integrating Little Rock’s schools beginning in 1959. Opening speaker: Judge Wiley Branton Jr., son of the late Wiley Branton Sr., a civil-rights attorney who represented the Little Rock Nine and worked with Thurgood Marshall, a civil-rights attorney who later become a U.S. Supreme Court justice. Panel I: Before 1957. Panelists: Judge Branton Jr., Treopia Washington and Grif Stockley. Panel II: 1957-58 and the Lost Year of 1958-1959. Panelists: Judy Green; Lottie Shackelford, first woman mayor of Little Rock; Richard Yada, who grew up, in part, in a World War II internment camp for Japanese-Americans and who later attended Central High; and Gloria Ray Karlmark, a member of the Little Rock Nine. Panel III: 1959 to Present. Panelists: Crystal Mercer, Dr. LaVerne Bell-Tolliver, Coach Eddie Boone, and two members of the Little Rock Nine, Melba Pattillo Beals and Carlotta Walls LaNier.
Booths and activities in front of the National Park Service Visitor Center, organized by Arkansas Peace Festival, noon-6 p.m.
Civil-rights bus tours, which will run Saturday and Sunday noon-4 p.m., starting at Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site Visitor Center.
Student band concerts, noon-6 p.m., Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site Visitor Center.
1 p.m. Book signings by Little Rock Nine memorists Beals, Terrence Roberts and Thelma Mothershed Wair at the Central High library.
Speakers’ Corner: 1-2 p.m. Front steps of state Capitol, organized by Grassroots Arkansas and Save Our Schools.
Honoring the Legacy: The Little Rock Nine, 2:30-3 p.m., state Capitol, Old Supreme Court Room, south end of second floor, organized by Grassroots Arkansas and Save Our Schools. The groups will present two members of the Little Rock Nine, Elizabeth Eckford and Wair, a token of gratitude, and Eckford will give a firsthand account of her struggles and her hope for the future.
2-3 p.m., a presentation on federal hate-crime investigations, with FBI special agent in charge Diane Upchurch, supervisory special agent Todd Adams, supervisory special agent William Kennedy and special agent Jacob Strokes, Central High library.
3-4 p.m., a panel on intergenerational race and racial healing, with Roberts, Mercer, Sam Hoskins and Omavi Shakur, Central High library.
3-5:30 p.m., Movement Assembly on Education, state Capitol, Old Supreme Court Room, south end of second floor organized by Grassroots Arkansas and Save Our Schools.
6-7 p.m., dinner, Union AME Church, 1825 Pulaski St., organized by Grassroots Arkansas and Save Our Schools.
7-8 p.m., Honoring the Legacy: Live Performance, Union AME Church, 1825 Pulaski St., organized by Grassroots Arkansas and Save Our Schools.
7:30-9:30 p.m., 3-D-mapped video screening projected directly on the front facade of the school, nine minutes in length, which will run every 15 minutes, Saturday and Sunday, by UCA video artist Scott Meador and UCA composer Dr. Blake Tyson.
SUNDAY
3-5 p.m., panel discussion featuring some of the children of the Little Rock Nine, Ron Robinson Theater.
5-7 p.m., Interfaith Service, Robinson Center, with national and local faith leaders, including the Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, the spiritual home of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
MONDAY
10-11:30 a.m., Commemoration Ceremony, Central High School, featuring an address by former President Bill Clinton and remarks from the eight living members of the Little Rock Nine.
7:30 p.m., Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Tania Leon: Turning History into Art, Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas.