The shameful events of that school year in Arkansas were broadcast on national television every night. The event and many like it repeated in cities across the South prompted the famous magazine illustrator, Norman Rockwell, to do one of his most heartfelt and politically charged paintings that was published around the world. It featured a little black girl surrounded by U.S. Marshals, walking to class against a wall covered with smashed tomatoes among the riot debris. The little girl is wearing a clean, white dress and clutching her school books tightly as she bravely makes her way to class. The white dress symbolizes the purity and innocence of youth, and the school books the knowledge that will set her free, theoretically anyway.
No stranger to controversy or the conflicts that characterize much of human history, the social studies students of Central Alternative High School decided that this year's learning expedition would focus on a school with the same name as theirs in Little Rock, Arkansas, and what has become known as the "Little Rock Nine." These students, now elder statesmen of the civil rights movement in America, were featured on the critically acclaimed motion picture history of the movement entitled Eyes on the Prize. The award-winning documentary featured the faces, voices, and the sometimes-difficult-to-watch news footage of the Civil Rights Era in which one can see young men being viciously attacked by police dogs, heads struck by police clubs and baseball bats, men and women hit by fire hoses, and, in response, decaying urban centers like the Watts section of Los Angeles exploding in flames and mob violence. But that came later, in the 1960s. Our guests were witnesses to, actually participants in the beginning of the movement a decade earlier. For many people, dealing with the ordinary pressures of attending school can be challenging if not downright stressful. The kids at Central could identify with their guests. Because Central has become the school a fair number of at-risk students attend when they can't seem to fit into the traditional school setting. There was a connection, an instant bond with these black people from Little Rock. Now multiply this stress of attending school by the the majority of white students and the entire community behind them who want you dead if not out of their traditionally all white bastion of education. To be screamed at, spit upon, threatened in the hallways and at home is unimaginable. If you lived through it, it's probably too painful to remember, but remember these folks do. As young Dubuque students sit and listen, mouths are agape as one of the Little Rock Nine speaks candidly of hearing a conversation between the leader of an unruly mob and local law enforcement and school officials. "Just give us one student to lynch," said the mob leader, "and we'll let the other eight live." As is Central's custom, their students created a book that compiles their historical research . And students asked community organizations for donations to help pay the expense of bringing these historical figures to Dubuque. They planned an event that would involve the entire community, and now you can see the results of their work in the following video (about 23 minutes). Join the students of Central Alternative High School, their teachers, and family members as we meet these incredible people right out of the pages of America's history books.
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ubuque,
Iowa and Central Alternative High School played host to an extraordinary
event March 19th. Even though we were on the brink of war with Iraq,
here in Dubuque it was suddenly the 1950s where it wasn't all poodle
skirts and ducktail haircuts. We were reliving the moment when nine
black students integrated Little Rock's Central Alternative High School. The
violence, threat of violence, abuse, and national attention heaped
upon these children caused President Eisenhower to send in the troops
of the 101st Airborne Division to set up a perimeter and keep the
peace. Suddenly, Little Rock, Arkansas became a white hot crucible
in which was cast the federal government's policy toward school
integration.
A
reproduction of that Rockwell painting hangs in Thom Determan's
office in Dubuque. He's director of the social studies curriculum
for Dubuque Community Schools, and Thom is also executive director
of the district's diversity programs. Thom is on hand for this event
at Loras College's Graber Center."I woudn't miss it for the
world," says Thom. Central Alternative High School teachers John Adelmann
and Tim Ebeling are conversing with their students, the real hosts
for this evening. These teaching partners have helped their students
engineer other expeditions of historical proportions, events such
as last year's Tuskegee Airmen Project and the "Tribute to
Victory: Dubuque in World War II" Project in which students
brought to Dubuque the pilot who dropped the first atomic bomb in
warfare against Japan, retired general Paul Tibbets. Now a tradition
has formed at Central Alternative High School. Every year they plan an expedition
that will involve the entire community.
We are now providing a choice of RealPlayer applications for you to download
and install on your computer to enable you to view the video and audio
files. One is RealPlayer8 and the other is RealOne Player, which is an
excellent player with many new features. It's easy to install, so just
Of
the two types of free players available, RealPlayer 8 is the traditional
player that is free and will work beautifully to access Web based multimedia
files from our site. There is also a new player available, which is also
free, called RealONE. Either player will probably work for your operating
system. If your system is older (Windows 95, NT), however, you may want
to use the RealPlayer 8 software. If you are running a newer, faster system
like Windows 98, ME, XP, or 2000, go for the RealOne player.
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