I decided to do little rock for MLK weekend because of the rich history that Little Rock has when it comes to African Americans. It's a history that I don't even think people in Little Rock truly understand how profound the town is.
Most people may know that Little Rock is the site of Central High School, which is where the Little Rock 9 integrated when segregation was struck down by Brown vs Topeka Board of Education. I've always grown up knowing the story of the Little Rock 9. mostly Earnest Green due to my father. However, nothing in life prepared me for the experience or the knowledge that I gained by traveling to Little Rock.
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| Magnolia gas station, where journalist stood, is still the same from 1957 |
Additionally Little Rock has also been on my destination list because of its attachment with Bill Clinton and since I'm trying to visit all 50 states of the United States, you can understand why we ended up going to Little Rock for MLK weekend. And what a perfect weekend to go. MLK weekend!
Believe it or not, it is actually expensive to fly into Little Rock from Florida. I have tried to book tickets twice before but paying $500+ for a domestic flight is just not the way that I fly. So, when we saw that there was a sale from Miami to Little Rock, we just felt like it was the perfect opportunity.
We arrived into Little Rock at like midnight and the first thing we noticed is there were no Ubers or Lyfts. As someone who travels often, I can tell you that this is pretty weird. I caught an Uber at 3:30 in the morning in New York. Ubers/Lyfts are usually always available at the airport. Welcome to Little Rock! We ended up taking a taxicab (who uses these anymore) to our hotel which was about 20. mins. The next day we immediately got a rental car and went about our merry way.
Our first stop was Central High School. As soon we rode by the school, I immediately got emotional. There is something about going to historic places, especially those that deal with African American history or trauma, that is so intense for me. There is always like this energy at these places that is so hard to explain unless you have been there. But as soon as we passed by school, I immediately just wanted to cry. I could already tell that the history that we were going to be learning for today was going to be deep it
After we rode around the school, we found the visitor center which is located across the street. The visitor center is also a museum dedicated to the Little Rock 9 and their integration story. While the museum is small, it is powerful. I think we spent about an hour or two just in the museum, listening to their stories and reading. Some parts of the museum were interactive but for me the most profound part was listening to the stories. I ended up learning so much more about these individuals and the struggle that they went through by listening to them tell their story in their own words.
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| All 9 kids explained why they decided to integrate at this interactive display |
As we were heading to the gift shop, the Park Ranger came and said, "hey, we're getting ready to start a tour in 5 minutes" We were the only black people in the museum and the park Ranger wanted us to come into the tour. The tour is broken into two parts: a stroll through the school and a PowerPoint. For the PowerPoint part, if you really went into depth, like we did, at the museum, instead of just walking around, then you pretty much knew everything that was on the PowerPoint. The impactful part came with exploring the school. This is where you get more information. For example, you see where Elizabeth Eckford got off the bus stop and you also see where she had to walk to catch the second bus. It kind of makes it more realistic for you and you get to further understand the pain and trauma behind the infamous picture of the Little Rock 9.
A lot of the people on my tour were in tears and crying. The Park Ranger gave us so much extra information that history has never taught us before. For example, the story of Alex Wilson, the African American reporter who was hit in the head with a brick when the mob attacked the black reporters. This man would die a mere 3 years later as a result of that brick. Based on this experience alone, I'm happy that we went to Little Rock. This experience was priceless. Definitely 10/10
When we left the school, we traveled to Daisy Bates house. Her neighbors saw us taking pictures and reading the plague at the house and came over to talk to us. This firsthand knowledge and accounts of what happened during that time period made this experience a once in a lifetime experience. I'm thankful to Tyshon although he would not let us record him for taking the time to explain what it was like growing up with Daisy Bates as a neighbor. Unfortunately, we were not able to go inside of her house because we were there on a Saturday and the museum wasn't open.
Using the newfound knowledge that we gained, we changed our plans and headed to Dunbar High (Middle) School. This was the high school that was built for African Americans students so that they would not integrate schools. It didn't work. The high school is still functional but now serves as a middle school.
After visiting all of the sites related to the Little Rock 9, we went to the capital. The capital is beautiful, even more so inside but it was closed for Saturday. What I loved the most was the monument for the Little Rock 9. When you think a little rock, AR you automatically think of the Little Rock 9..... at least I do. I loved that the city had so many displays about the Little Rock 9. There are actually two more displays that we weren't able to go to.
The next day we decided to visit the HBCU in Little Rock (Philander Smith) and learn about the 1st President that I loved, Bill Clinton. We went to the Bill Clinton's restaurant (42 .. get it) and baby it was BLACK! ....Black wait staff, black customers, black gospel music, black singers, black food. I mean it was black on black on black on black on top of black ... and I loved it. Especially during MLK weekend. I had such a good time at the Bill Clinton Presidential Library restaurant. I would highly recommend it if you ever go to Little Rock. It was definitely a 10/10 experience.
The only thing that I was disappointed in was that the snowstorm came, and they closed down the Bill Clinton Museum before we could go through. Basically, everything in Little Rock shut down once the snow started to fall. So, we went back to the hotel and watched the snow continue to come down and come down and come down ..... to the point where I kind of got anxious because I felt like we were going to get snowed in. Thankfully that did not happen.
So this was my trip to Little Rock. There are a couple of other things that you can do when you go like visiting the Bill Clinton Museum, going to the sculpture garden, visiting the Old Mill which was the scene of Gone with the Wind. They also have a zoo along with various museums.
What do you think. Would you visit Little Rock?
