It's been fifty years since President Eisenhower called in the national guard to escort 9 African American students as they integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. That time seem so long ago. Maybe it's the pictures, in stark black and white, or the clothing, like costumes out of a staging of Grease. The idea that so many people could be so agnry over because nine black teenagers wanted to take advantage of the learning at Central High seems so foreign. Newsweek has a good article about the events of those days.
Are things better? Mostly, yes. We're still far too conscious of race. But except for maybe a few skinheads or throwback Klansmen, people are rarely openly hostile to the idea of integration.
But then again, I'm reminded that the problems in Jena, Louisiana began when a few black students sat under the tree some white students believed to be exclusively for their pleasure.
Within days of each other, there's a celebration in Little Rock and a protest in Jena.
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