Little Rock Central High School Museum

Ever go to a landmark or some place with historical significance and become overwhelmed emotionally with the place? That happened to me yesterday and I'm completely emotionally derailed after visiting the Central High School Museum in Little Rock.

Central High School as it stands today

First some background: I grew up in central Arkansas. I dreamed of leaving that place for many reasons, one of which was the blatant racism I witnessed in the 1980s.

Central High Museum has great interactive kiosks with a lot video

True story: One night, I was at a Circle K right off of Interstate 40 in North Little Rock. I was buying beer or something and going to visit a girlfriend. A black man came in while I was checking out. He was obviously fatigued. He told the cashier he had been assigned to Camp Robinson. From the line at checkout, I saw his wife and children asleep in the car and noticed a DoD sticker on the car's windshield. I assumed they'd been driving a while.

The dumb-ass redneck cashier gave the man the wrong directions. After the black gentleman walked out, this guy had the audacity to look at me and said, "I ain't got nuthin' against blacks–everybody ought to own one." I left my stuff without paying, ran out, and caught up with the guy. I told him he had gotten wrong directions and that I was in the Air National Guard. I was going to visit my girlfriend and Camp Robinson used to be a shortcut to where she lived. I had him follow me, while I sat in my car fuming over the stupid ass, dumb redneck, racist, throwback culture I loathed. This was 1990 or '91.

This is something I grew up with around Arkansas and I hated it. It was in my family and some of my "friends" were bigots of the highest order.

Central High was closed by the governor

Yesterday, I took my family to the Central High School Museum, which is a federally funded park now. My loathing of the backwards, white racist legacy in the state didn't prepare me for the videos and stories told in each exhibit.

My 12-year-old just finished reading, Warriors Don't Cry, and with the video footage and stories in the museum, it really brought home to her the frothing hatred populating Little Rock in 1957. This is nothing to be proud of. It was only 60 years ago and it's painful. I cannot express my distaste for that part of my Southern heritage. I want nothing to do with any of that. I want nothing to do with bigoted assholes who threw feces and urine inside two young black women's lockers. I left Arkansas for many reasons, but my hatred of the racist culture was at the top of the list.

Crisis at Central High display as you enter the museum

Even today, after living in Chicago and then the Dallas/Fort Worth area, going back to Arkansas is shocking. Racial tension and division is an undertow nearly everywhere we went.

Don't forget the hell the Little Rock 9 survived just trying to go to high school. Not only are they heroes for being the first blacks to integrate in Arkansas, they are role models, authors, and speakers.

Never forget how lucky we are to have had these nine children blaze the first trail in what would later test our entire legal system. I respect them and those who stood up for them more than I can articulate.

I've written about this topic before: Central Arkansas Schools, Desegregation, and 50 Years of Government Micromanagent

Also note: I am not against all Southern culture. I highly recommend everyone from the South subscribe to Oxford American magazine. It's the best of the South in music, food, movies, and writing.