Little Rock Nine project includes replica of bench

A replica of the bus stop bench that served as a refuge of sorts for Little Rock Nine student Elizabeth Eckford after she was turned away from entering Central High School on Sept. 4, 1957, is planned for the corner of Park and 16th streets.

The National Park Service and the Central High Memory Project Student Team are working with community partners on the Elizabeth Eckford Bench Project. The project includes construction of the replica bus stop bench, the creation of a mobile app for an audio walking tour that tells the events of the first day of the desegregation effort, and a recording booth for interviews and student podcasts.

The Bench Project groundbreaking ceremony will be at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Park and 16th street intersection and will include remarks by representatives of the National Park Service and some of the partnering organizations.

The partnering groups include Bullock Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; Central High School; the Central High Environmental and Spatial Technology, or EAST, program; the Little Rock School District; the city of Little Rock; the Central Arkansas Library System’s Butler Center for Arkansas Studies; the Good Earth Garden Center; Friends of Central High Museum Inc.; Home Depot; Little Rock Club 99 and other Rotary International Clubs; Pam Brown Courtney and Dr. Willis Courtney; the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service; and Unity in the Community.

Eckford was one of nine black students who desegregated the all-white Central High in the 1957-58 school year. She arrived at the school by herself on Sept. 4 and was repeatedly blocked by soldiers from entering the school while an angry crowd shouted in protest of black students attending the school. Members of the crowd followed Eckford to the corner bus stop. The photos of a stoic Eckford walking to the bench while protesters appear to be shouting at her from behind are considered to be among the most iconic in U.S. civil-rights history.