Little Rock Revisited: A Classroom Activity

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1. Examine the history of integration in your school by studying past yearbooks or interviewing long-time employees or alumni. What year did your school first enroll students of other races or cultures? Did your school ever merge with another school or school district? What are the stories accompanying these changes in school population? Chronicle these changes in a newsletter entitled "Integration at _______." Distribute it to your local community and archive a copy in the school library.

2. The Little Rock Nine emphasize that their story was not unique to Central High, but that black students everywhere made history as pioneers paving the way for racial integration in their hometowns. Research the stories of those students within your state or community by using newspaper accounts reporting educational issues that happened after Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Seek out some African American residents of your community who were teenagers during the late 1950s and early '60s. Ask them to describe their school experiences during the years when integration was a new concept. Give your school system a report card, grading it on how well you think it has progressed since segregation and "separate but equal" were abolished by the Supreme Court.

3. Discuss what it feels like to be left out. If possible, share one time when you were little and felt excluded. Identify the feelings common to that experience. Talk about ways you tried to "get in" and the success or failure of those attempts. Acknowledge anyone who made an effort to include you and how they reached out to you. How did their kindness make you feel? Were their efforts successful or not? Draw a symbol of that person or persons, depicting their kindness. Use whatever colors you associate with the experience in your memory. Arrange everyone's symbols on the door to your classroom as a reminder of the time when each of you were once welcomed in by others and as a challenge for you to open the doors to all whom you meet in school each day.

4. Now that the school year is underway, how well have you gotten to know the new students, teachers and staff at your school? Organize a Welcome Day for the new people at your school by preparing a survey asking them their favorite music, food and sports, plus any information they wish to share about where they came from. Use the survey results for PA announcements and plan a schoolwide game where students and teachers try to identify the new members to the school community by clues provided throughout the day (e.g., "Which new cafeteria worker named all her pets after Disney characters?")

5. The role of photojournalists is a hotly debated topic today. The photos of the crisis at Little Rock catapulted the painful reality of the struggle against segregation into the view of millions of American newspaper readers. Study some of these pictures as they appear in books and encyclopedias or on Websites. Using what you have learned about the daily experiences of the Little Rock Nine, and reading some of their personal accounts, compose nine tableau "photographs" in your classroom.

Create nine stations depicting the events of that year at Central High. Use appropriate costumes and props, having different students freeze-frame the individuals captured in time in each scene. Invite other classes to a walk-through history lesson in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of integration at Central High. Enlist a student guide - live or on tape - to explain the characters frozen in each tableau, or print signs as captions for each "photo." The challenge is to be as still as a wax museum figure, maintaining the emotion depicted in each scene while students are on tour.

6. Melba Pattillo, one of the Little Rock Nine, felt that if the governor of Arkansas and school board could only meet her, just sit and talk with her, they would see that she and the other students were no threat to the school or to anyone. How well do you know your elected officials? Your school board? Your district superintendent? Your principal? Often the people in leadership don't get the opportunity to interact with the very students they ultimately serve.

Write a letter of introduction and invitation to some of these educational leaders and tell them your own goals for the upcoming school year. Let them know the needs of students and teachers in your school, based on your observation and experience. Invite them to watch a class in progress. Ask to meet with them to learn about their role in your education and to see what challenges they face in their job.