| Little Rock Central High School | |
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 Front entrance to Little Rock Central High School | |
| Location | |
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1500 Little Rock Nine Way[1] 72202-5843 United States | |
| Information | |
| School type | Comprehensive public high school |
| Founded | 1927 (98 years ago) (1927) |
| Status | Open |
| School district | Little Rock School District |
| NCES District ID | 0509000[2] |
| Superintendent | Dr. Jermall D. Wright |
| CEEB code | 041422 |
| NCES School ID | 050900000607[2] |
| Principal | Nancy Rousseau (since 2002-present) |
| Teaching staff | 161.18 (onFTE basis)[2] |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Enrollment | 2,260 (2023–2024)[2] |
| Student to teacher ratio | 14.02[2] |
| Education system |
|
| Classes offered | Regular, Career Focus,Advanced Placement |
| Hours in school day | 7.25 |
| Campus size | 18 acres (7.3 ha) |
| Colors | Black and Old gold |
| Fight song | On, Tigers! (based onOn, Wisconsin!) |
| Athletics conference | 7A/6A East (2012–14) |
| Team name | Tigers |
| Rival | Little Rock South West high school,Cabot high school |
| Accreditation | ADE AdvancED (1924–) |
| Publication | The Labyrinth |
| Newspaper | The Tiger |
| Yearbook | The Pix |
| Communities served | Little Rock |
| Website | www |
Little Rock Central High School | |
  Location in United States Show map of the United States | |
| Location | Little Rock, Arkansas |
| Coordinates | 34°44′12″N92°17′56″W / 34.7368°N 92.2989°W /34.7368; -92.2989 |
| Area | 17.95 acres (7.26 ha) |
| Architect | Parks Almand, John |
| Architectural style | Gothic Revival |
| Visitation | 44,293 (2005) |
| Website | Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site |
| Part of | Central High School Neighborhood Historic District (ID96000892) |
| NRHP reference No. | 77000268[3] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | August 19, 1977 |
| Designated NHL | May 20, 1982[4] |
| Designated CP | August 16, 1996 |
| Designated NHS | November 6, 1998 (#01000274) |
Little Rock Central High School (LRCH) is an accreditedcomprehensive public high school inLittle Rock,Arkansas,United States. The school was thesite of the Little Rock Crisis in 1957 after theU.S. Supreme Court ruled thatsegregation by race in public schools was unconstitutional three years earlier. This was during the period of heightened activism in thecivil rights movement.[5]
Central is located at the intersection of Little Rock Nine Way (a section of Park Street, designated in September 2022) andDaisy L. Gatson Bates Drive (formerly 14th Street).[6] Bates was an African-American journalist and stateNAACP president who played a key role in bringing about, through the 1957 crisis, the integration of the school.
Central can trace its origins to 1869 when theSherman School operated in a wooden structure at 8th and Sherman streets; it graduated its first class on June 13, 1873. In 1885 the Sherman School was moved to 14th and Scott streets and was namedScott Street School, but was more commonly calledCity High School. Five years later in 1890, thePeabody School was constructed at West Capitol and Gaines streets. It was named in honor of philanthropistGeorge Peabody from US$200,000 received via thePeabody Education Fund. In 1905, the city foundedLittle Rock High School at the intersection of 14th and Cumberland streets, and shuttered the Peabody and Scott Street schools to serve as the city's sole public high school. Until 1957, only white students were permitted to be enrolled.
In 1927 at a cost of US$1.5 million, the city completed construction on the nation's largest and most expensive high school facility, which remains in use today. In 1953 with the construction ofHall High School, the school was renamed as Little Rock Central High School. It has since been listed on the U.S.National Register of Historic Places and named as a U.S.National Historic Landmark andNational Historic Site.
Central High School, which covers grades 9 through 12, had an enrollment of 2,476 in school year 2020–2021.[2] It is in theLittle Rock School District, and serves sections of Little Rock and the entirety ofCammack Village.[7][8]Nancy Rousseau was appointed principal in 2002, and retained that position as of 2024[update].[6]
Built in 1927 at a cost of $1.5 million, Little Rock Senior High School was designed in theGothic Revival style; it was hailed as the most expensive, most beautiful, and largest high school in the nation. Statues of four figures over the front entrance represent ambition, personality, opportunity, and preparation.[9] Its opening earned national publicity, with nearly 20,000 people attending the dedication ceremony. In 1953 it was renamed as Little Rock Central High School.
At the time in Arkansas and other states across the South, public school educational facilities were legally racially segregated. In 1954 the US Supreme Court ruled inBrown v. Board of Education that such segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, and encouraged the states to integrate their schools. Related historic events in the 1950s changed education at Central High School and throughout the United States.
LRCHS was the focal point of theLittle Rock Integration Crisis of 1957.[5] Nine Black students, known as theLittle Rock Nine, were denied entrance to the school in defiance of the 1954U.S. Supreme Court ruling orderingintegration of public schools.[5] This provoked a showdown between the DemocratGovernorOrval Faubus and RepublicanPresidentDwight D. Eisenhower that gained international attention.[5]
On the morning of September 23, 1957, the nine Black high school students faced an angrymob of over 1,000 Whites in front of Central High School who were protesting the integration project.[5] As the students were escorted inside by theLittle Rock police, violence escalated, and they were removed from the school.[5] The next day, Eisenhower ordered the 1,200-man 327th Airborne Battle Group of theU.S. Army's101st Airborne Division fromFort Campbell, Kentucky, to escort the nine students into the school.[5] By the same order, he federalized the entire 10,000-man Arkansas National Guard, in order to remove them from the control of Governor Faubus.[5] At nearbyCamp Robinson, a hastily organized Task Force 153rd Infantry drew guardsmen from units all over the state.[5] Most of the Arkansas Guard was quickly demobilized, but the ad hoc Task Force 153rd Infantry assumed control at Thanksgiving when the 327th withdrew and patrolled inside and outside the school for the remainder of the school year. AsMelba Pattillo Beals, one of the nine students, wrote in her diary, "After three full days inside Central [High School], I know that integration is a much bigger word than I thought."[10]
This event, watched by the nation and world, was the site of the first important test for the implementation of the U.S. Supreme Court'sBrown v. Board of Education decision of 1954.[5] Many areas of the South pledged to resist this ruling. Arkansas' governor Orval Faubus questioned the authority of the federal court system and the validity of desegregation. The crisis at Little Rock's Central High School was the first fundamental test of the national resolve to enforce black civil rights in the face ofmassive resistance during the years following the Brown decision. As to whether Eisenhower's specific actions to enforce integration violated thePosse Comitatus Act, the Supreme Court, inCooper v. Aaron (1958), indirectly affirmed the legality of his conduct. It was never expressly reviewed.[11]
In 1958, federal JudgeJesse Smith Henley of theUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, stating that integration had "broken down under the pressure of public opinion," suspended operation of the federal integration order until the 1960-61 school term. The school board said that it had faced large fees and could not afford to hire security guards to keep the peace in school.[12]
LRCHS was listed on theNational Register of Historic Places on August 19, 1977, and was designated as aNational Historic Landmark on May 20, 1982.[13] The school continues to be used as an educational facility.
In 2007, Central High School held an event for the 50th Anniversary of the Little Rock Nine entering Central. On September 24, 2007, a new museum was opened honoring the Little Rock Nine. That same year,HBO produced a documentary film directed by theRenaud Brothers,Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later, which explored the significant changes and continuities within the school since itsdesegregation.
Little Rock Central High School made legal history again in 1968, in a case based onthe teaching of evolution in the public schools. LRCHS biology teacher Susan Epperson agreed to be the plaintiff in a case challenging an Arkansas law forbidding the teaching of the theory ofevolution bynatural selection in the public schools. The United States Supreme Court's decision inEpperson v. Arkansas held that states could not require that "teaching and learning must be tailored to the principles or prohibitions of any religious sect or dogma," i.e., the teaching of evolution in schools could not be forbidden on religious grounds.[14]
Today, the high school is minority-majority, with a minority enrollment of 67.7%. The racial breakdown of the school in 2021 was 52.7% Black, 32.3% White, 8.1% Asian, 5.5% Hispanic, and 0.9% two or more races.[15]
The assumed course of study follows the Smart Core curriculum developed by theArkansas Department of Education (ADE). For 2011–12, Central is in Whole School Improvement Year 4 in its work to reachAdequate Yearly Progress (AYP) toward theNo Child Left Behind Act.
Central has an International StudiesMagnet Program, anEAST Initiative Lab Program, more than 30 service, academic, and honors clubs, award-winning instrumental and concert band and choral programs, and more than 141 courses offered, including 35AP andPre-AP courses and 5 foreign languages.[16][17]
Its student publications includeThe Tiger (the student newspaper),The Pix (the school yearbook), which was originally namedThe Cage, andThe Labyrinth (the school poetry and arts magazine).
The Pix was inducted into the Arkansas Scholastic Press Association's ArkansasYearbook Hall of Fame on April 16, 2010. The 2010–11 edition of the PIX received a Silver Medal from theColumbia Scholastic Press Association.[18]
The Tiger is the official news publication of Little Rock Central High School and one of the oldest high school newspapers in the country. It is issued in the form of a quarterly mini-magazine that keeps students updated on issues around the school. The newspaper has won many Arkansas Scholastic Press Association awards. The periodical is known for covering difficult aspects of student life, includingeating disorders,drug use, andacademic dishonesty.
Central is a charter member and has been fully accredited byAdvancED since 1924.[19] It has the oldest charter west of theMississippi River in theCum Laude Society.
As of 2008[update] Central has had the most National Merit and National Achievement finalists in the state over the past 10 years with over $4 million in scholarships awarded during the 2006–07 school year.[17] Central has had fivePresidential Scholars in the last decade and had 256AP Scholars in 2020–21.[17] The school dominates at regional and state Science Fairs.[17] It has the largest number of delegates to Boys' and Girls' State,[17] the most participants in Governor's School Gifted and Talented Program,[17] and has competed in chemistryOlympiad, Arkansas Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, mock trial, various mathematics competitions, and the SECME Olympiad.[17] In addition, Central has had 55 Stephens' Award winners for academic achievement.[17]
The Drama and Competitive Speech program is competitive and became one of the charter chapters of the Arkansas district of theNational Forensic League (speech and debate honor society).[20]
The school's choir programs has garnered several Best in Class awards at the annual Arkansas State Choral Festival administered by the Arkansas Choral Directors Association (ArkCDA). In addition, educated Andrew Goldberg. In 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2013, the Little Rock Central Madrigals won Class 7A Best in Class for Mixed Ensemble and Overall Ensemble.[21][22][23][24][25]
Since 2007, Central has been ranked nationally within the top 275 high schools based on theChallenge Index developed byThe Washington Post.[26] InNewsweek's June 13, 2010, issue, ranking the country's top high schools, Little Rock Central High School was ranked 94th in the nation, after having been ranked 20th in the magazine's 2006 rankings.[27]
Little Rock Central High School won theNational Fed Challenge competition in 2007 and again in 2008.[28][29]
In 2008, Central was theQuiz bowl division 7A state champion.[30]
The Little Rock Central Band and Flag Line were selected to participate in the2013 Presidential Inaugural Parade for Barack Obama.[31]
The Little Rock Central High School mascot for academic and athletic teams is theTiger, withblack andold gold serving as the school colors. The school's fight song, "On, Tigers!" is based on "On, Wisconsin!."[citation needed]
The Little Rock Tigers compete in numerous interscholastic activities in the state's largest classification (7A) in the 7A/6A East Conference for 2012–14, as administered by theArkansas Activities Association. The Tigers participate in baseball, basketball (boys/girls), bowling, competitive cheer, cross country,football,golf (boys/girls),soccer (boys/girls), softball, swimming & diving (boys/girls),tennis (boys/girls), track & field (boys/girls),volleyball, and wrestling.[32]
Little Rock Central holds numerous team and individual national and state titles and records including:
Elementary schools that feed into Little Rock Central include:
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Middle schools include:
Magnet-only schools that matriculate many students to Central includeMann Arts and Science Magnet Middle School.
On November 6, 1998,U.S. Congress establishedLittle Rock Central High School National Historic Site. TheNational Historic Site is administered in partnership with theNational Park Service, Little Rock Public Schools, the City of Little Rock, and others.[34]
The visitor center for the site is located diagonally across the street from the school and across from the memorial dedicated by Michael Warrick, and opened in fall 2006. It contains a captionedinterpretive film on the Little Rock integration crisis, as well as multimedia exhibits on both that and the larger context of desegregation during the 20th century and theCivil Rights Movement.
Opposite the visitor center to the west is the Central High Commemorative Garden, which features nine trees and benches that honor the students. Arches that represent the school's facade contain embedded photographs of the school in years since the crisis, and showcase students of various backgrounds in activities together.
Opposite the visitor center to the south is a historicMobilgas station, which has been preserved in its appearance at the time of the crisis. At the time, it served as the area for the press and radio and televisionreporters. It later served as a temporary visitor center before the new one was built.
 | This article's list of alumnimay not follow Wikipedia'sverifiability policy. Pleaseimprove this article by removing names that do not have independentreliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this articleand are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriatecitations.(December 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The following are notable people associated with Little Rock High School / Little Rock Central High School. If the person was a Central High School student, the number in parentheses indicates the year of graduation; if the person was a faculty or staff member, that person's title and years of association are included
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