Remembering Little Rock:
Crisis at Central High

Sunday, November 11, 2007 • 2:30 p.m.

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site
1515 SE Monroe • Topeka, Kansas

Free and open to public
RSVP by November 9, 2007 to
(785) 235-3939 or brownfound@juno.com

Elizabeth Eckford made history as a member of the Little Rock Nine, the nine African-American students who desegrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1957, Little Rock Central High School became a battleground in the struggle for civil rights. The image of fifteen-year-old Elizabeth, walking alone through a screaming mob in front of Central High School, propelled the crisis into the nation's living rooms and brought international attention to Little Rock. The photo, taken by Will Counts, is considered one of the top 100 photographs of the 20th centry by the Associated Press. Elizabeth now speaks about what America was like in the past, the impact of language and lessons learned from the past. She reminds audiences that the dead can be buried, but not the past.

Ken Reinhardt is a 1958 graduate of Little Rock Central High School. It was in that school that the previously all-white high school was integrated by nine African-American students. His classroom friendship with Elizabeth Eckford, one of the nine students, came to light as a result of a National History Day project by students at Uniontown High School, Uniontown, Kansas. As a result, he was reunited with Elizabeth at National History Day in 1996 in Maryland, which was covered by NBC and CNN news. They had not seen each other since 1958. Ken is a retired Senior Vice President of National City Bank in Louisville, Kentucky.

Presented by the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research and the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site

Remembering Little Rock: Crisis at Central High

Remembering Little Rock:
Crisis at Central High