Little Rock Nine(s)
Too much of a good thing, well it can jade you. You eat too much ice cream, it loses it's appeal. Hear the same story over and over, and the magic is lost. Even history can become commonplace when it becomes an everyday lesson.
The Anderson Monarchs started Day 12 with a forty minute bus ride to Little Rock, Arkansas. Their Civil Rights Barnstorming Tour had set them in places where unspeakable violence had occurred. People were beaten,and killed, and memorials had been setup to remember the victims.
Little Rock High School was a little different. No one was killed here, and the events of 1957 through '59 occurred almost a half decade before the most Americans were aware of the struggle occurring in the south.
Like the many surprises on this journey, however, the Monarchs would be challenged on a day that involved a simple tour of the school attended by the Little Rock Nine and a ballgame against the local RBI nine.
The ballgame was yet another crooked-number win, with the bats echoing in the grandstand....but two individuals involved in the morning tour were the day's MVP's.
The bus pulled past the massive structure of Little Rock Central High School on the way to the National Park Service Visitor Center, and the Monarchs were introduced to Park Ranger Nick Roll. He was just the last of several excellent tour guides the Monarchs have met on this trip, but Ranger Nick wasn't just spewing history. Ranger Nick had a plan.
During a brief propaganda film produced by the US Government for distribution overseas in the mid-sixties, the sanitized story of the Little Rock Nine played out in black and white. But in the post-film discussion, Ranger Nick kept pushing the kids to talk about what was missing from the film, and how it contrasted to the media images sent out in September 1957 that changed people's minds about school segregation.
The story he told did not end when the nine students were finally led into the LRCHS with a military escort, which is when the media coverage ended. Ranger Nick spoke passionately about how the nine students, not only got into the school, but how they endured brutal, endless hazing and physical abuse from some students, and cold indifference from the others. He challenged the Monarchs to examine their own behavior and how they react not only when they are attacked, but when others bear the burden of abuse. Ranger Nick's piercing blue eyes were mesmerizing and uncomfortable...he moved easily between gentle storytelling and sharp, rhetorical questions about real courage in the face of injustice and bullying. Judging by the silence of the surrounding group, there may have been some soul searching going on. I know there was for me.
After some pictures at the school, we moved back to the visitor center where the second guest, Dr. Sybil Jordan Hampton spoke to the Monarchs. Dr Hampton attended Little Rock Central in 1959. The school had been closed in 1958; an end-run against integrating the schools that year was to simply close them. They reopened in '59 and Dr. Hampton became the first African American to attend three years at LRCHS, and graduate...in a class of 544.
She too spoke eloquently about her time at the school....how not one student ever spoke to her in three years; how teachers refused to protect her from both physical and verbal abuse. She described this as the real struggle, and the was media was long gone. She also encouraged the Monarchs to look for ways to foster change and promote peace. She called them out to be leaders in a society desperate for leadership. She spoke of forgiveness and understanding. "I hear African American kids say they are so angry, but if I'm not an a mass murderer, what do you have to be angry about?" It was a moving talk, and the Monarchs all stood and embraced her.
Once again the team was pressed for time as game time was less than hour away. Lamar Porter Boys Club Athletic Field is a quaint old time ballpark where Orioles legendary third baseman Brooks Robinson played as a teen. Little Rock RBI is refurbishing the field and there are spots where the facility is clearly in construction limbo, but it was the kind of ballpark that any baseball junkie would love. Tight hallways and tunnels leading to concrete dugouts, and a grandstand with an I-beam supported overhang.
The Monarchs hit the ball all over the field, but Lamar Porter field could not hold Tamir Brooks' moonshot that may well have traveled over 400 feet. It hit off the top of another backstop, on a hill, a good 75 feet behind the right field wall. Little Rock marched out a platoon of pitchers, but none could silence the Monarchs hitting machine on this day.
Trevor McGee starts and brings the heat; the small grandstand echoed the pop of the ball in the catcher's mitt.
Tamir hits the Backstop...beyond RF!
Nasir Jackson kicks up some dust scoring an early run
After a quick stop to check into the hotel, we walked across the street for an Arkansas Travellers game. After a visit to the field, and some selfies with Travelers pitcher Austin Wood, the Monarchs spread out in the grandstand. The humidity had died down and the players used their meal money to pillage the concessions.
Below is the full image of the Monarchs in front of LRCHS:
