Why this trip?
Back in the day, when we used to call St. Louis our home, winters would be long and painful. Being from a tropical country like India, it takes a little time to get used to 6 month winters. Well, it was almost March and I had had it with sitting at home and staring at the cold, forlorn streets. I really needed to get out.
Since we only had a weekend and we wanted to drive and go south, we did not have that many options – a little research on Google Maps and we decided that a trip to city of Little Rock, Arkansas with a stop in at Memphis should be comfortable.
On the road
The best way to get to Arkansas from St. Louis is to take the I-55 which takes you till Memphis from where you get on to the I-40 to the city of Little Rock.
Our drive was pleasant and uneventful most of the way – the trees still bare from the winter. Every time we go on a road trip I am constantly amazed by the vastness of the American continent. Very often on the road, you are going to be the only car with just huge expanses of land on both sides of the road. Where are all the people? Coming from a country of over 1 billion people, this emptiness can be a little unnerving! What is even more intriguing is along the road you will see old abandoned grain mills, farms, shop – your mind wondering what happened to the people who worked here and lived here?
Little Rock, Arkansas
On Friday evening we drove straight to Little Rock, the capital of the state of Arkansas, A mid-sized town, it has witnessed some pretty significant moments of American history. The city is built on the banks of River Arkansas, and you are generally never far from the river.
As we drove through the town, I was quite impressed by the suburban tranquility of the city. The landscape is moderately hilly and people’s houses are quite scenically perched on the hills. The trees though mostly bare still had a fiery tinge leftover from fall.
Suburban house in Little Rock, Arkansas
There really is not much to do in the city of Little Rock, which is why it’s an ideal weekend getaway – just drive and walk and eat.
Our first stop was at the Big Dam Bridge, a pedestrian bridge built over the Arkansas River connecting the towns of Little Rock and well, North Little Rock.
As we walked on to the bridge with our camera, we felt distinctly out of place among all the people jogging and exercising! At the center of the bridge, you get a bird’s eye view of the Arkansas River and a quite scary top view of the whirling river water near the dam.
From the bridge, we drove to Little Rock downtown a few miles away. The Little Rock State Convention house had a “Flower and Garden Show” going on which made the area quite crowded. Like most downtown areas, free parking is not easy to find but there are lots of paid parking spaces.
The city also offers the options of regular bus services, tourist bus services, and the tram – so if you can figure out their schedules you may not need to drive around that much. The tram is an electric trolley and more of a tourist attraction in itself!
The Electric Tram in Little Rock, Arkansas
Our next stop was the Old State Capitol House. This museum showcases the history of the building, which appears to be one of the most flawed state buildings of all times. It has been renovated several times ever since its original construction.
We drove past the new State Capitol to get a few pictures but instead saw a political rally in action.
Little Rock Central High School
Our last and most important stop was the Little Rock Central High School – yes, that is correct a public high school. If you are not an American you probably won’t know the significance of this place. Well, you are in for a treat!
A national historic site, this school was the stage for one of the key turning points in the American Civil Rights Movement. Fresh from the victory of World War II, the US was dealing with its own system of prejudice. Even though the Constitution granted equal rights to each citizen, people of color still had to deal with discrimination at work, in public places and in education. Although blacks were entitled to have schools that were of the same quality as the white, more often than not, those schools and other educational institutions were of worse quality.
Several districts only had one public school, which meant that the colored kids could not go to school at all. Frustrated at being treated as a second class citizen, the African-American community was beginning to stand up for its rights and a series of incidents across the nations, helped reach this movement’s tipping point. In 1954, the US Court, in the case of Brown V. Board of Education laid out that placing black children in separate public schools from their white counterparts was unconstitutional and promoted the idea that the Negro race was inferior. The court mandated segregation to be phased out over time.
Southern states protested strongly saying that the center had no right to intervene with education which is a state responsibility. They believed that by implementing this ruling they will lose the white votes and would face violent public opposition.
In 1957, Arkansas, considered to be one of the more progressive southern states, was chosen to be the first to “integrate” Little Rock High. 9 students, who later came to be referred to as the Little Rock Nine (LRN) were chosen to attend the white only public school. As the day of the integration came closer, dissent among the “socially forward whites” in Arkansas became clearer. Rumors of a mob and public disruption became common.
In a bid to please his people and to highlight the folly of this move by President Dwight Eisenhower, Governor Faubus of Arkansas, went on national television to state that he has called the National Guard to protect the school as he anticipates mob violence and requests the LRN to stay at home till the situation resolved. The 9 went to school anyway. The rest, as they say, is history.
The Visitor Center at Central High, has videos, interview, and photos of that historic day and the month that followed. The image of Elizabeth Eckford walking upright with her books with a mob crowd behind her jeering and shouting is imprinted in the psyche of American history.
As I read about the events that led to Little Rock and what transpired in this high school I was fascinated, disgusted and moved all at the same time. What seems so obvious now was so hard for people to accept back then. I mean, why would anyone think that another human being doesn’t deserve the same respect as yourself?
Watching the historic footage, I couldn’t help but wonder at the ridiculousness of it all. Mobs of people – women, children, and men, basically hounding a bunch of kids from going to school. In the land of freedom and democracy, it took the power of the 1100 men of the US 101st Airborne Division, to come and stand guard outside a high school, so that these kids could get their constitutional rights.
You wonder about the moral compass of these people and what they taught their white children, who thought it was an appropriate reaction to walk out of these classes as the black students walked in?
As a person of color and coming from a country with a troubled history with white colonizers, I was very moved by my visit to Little Rock Central High School. Places like these are living museums that help explain the fabric of this nation and should be seen everyone.
Memphis, Tennessee
Beale Street, Memphis
After a day in the city of Little Rock, we headed towards Memphis. Memphis is most famous for Graceland, the home of mega-star Elvis Priestly. Every year hundreds of thousands of Elvis fans make the pilgrimage to see the lavish property of the King of Rock n’ Roll.
We had already visited Graceland on a previous trip so we headed to the other famous place in Memphis – Beale Street.
Oh, what a place! Ablaze with neon signs, this cobbled 2-mile lane is one of the most vibrant streets that I have ever seen in the US. Music blares from every restaurant, people jive on the streets, artists display their creations and general merriment all around.
Almost all the restaurants in Beale Street feature live performances over the weekend ( so you may want to check that out before planning a visit). Bands also gave free performances on the sidewalks, filling the cobbled streets with music, singing, and dancing.
Apart from the music and the neon lights, pumpkin-shaped horse-drawn carriages lined the streets offering short rides. Surely not a bad way to Cinderella for 45 minutes:).
We ate our dinner at Hard Rock Cafe, where we stumbled upon a children’s party in progress. The only live performance we got to see that evening were kids jumping up and down with guitars on the stage and pretending to be rock stars! Sigh!
Gibson Guitar Factory
Stormy skies greeted us the next morning! Tornadoes were expected later in the evening so we decided to shorten our trip to head out back to St. Louis. We made one final pit stop at Gibson Guitar Factory in Beale Street ( which btw was still buzzing with activity). The factory tour was informative but a little boring. We don’t know much about guitars so couldn’t appreciate the finer details of the guitar making.
Freeway Highlight on I-62
The American freeway system is fairly standardized from the signage to the rest areas to the fast-food chains churning out out identical fare across the nation.
Small businesses take special care to catch the eye of the average road tripper by creating a unique and engaging experience.
One such place that caught our attention was the Lambert Cafe on I-62. Heavily advertised as the “Home of Throwed Rolls’Â we had to know what that meant!
At Lambert’s Cafe, the concept is really simple. Traditional Southern American cuisine is served with hot buns fresh from the oven. And the fun part – these hot buns are thrown by servers to the customers. Every 15 minutes hot trays of fresh buns will come out and the server will start throwing these bread rolls at customers who attempt to catch it.
The buns are so hot, soft and yummy and are without a doubt the best part of the meal. Apart from the meal and the buns, ‘pass-arounds’ are served continuously throughout the meal. These are southern side dishes like fried okra, fried potatoes, mac n’ cheese, beans etc.
The food was just about okay but the experience of the ‘throwed rolls’ was worth it.
For more travels in the US, go here
6 comments
Have you read Malorie Blackman’s teenage novel, ‘Noughts and Crosses’, which describes a situation very similar to that in Little Rock but with the racial elements reversed? US publishers refused to touch it when it first came out. It’s excellent and well worth getting hold of a copy if you don’t know it.
@Annie – Thanks for dropping by again ! You have piqued my curiosity about this book and I shall try to find it in my local library
It is a well written piece. The history of the school and LRN incident is touchy but interesting. The narration keeps one interested in reading your travel tale.
@mom – Thanks for the compliment- we did not have very high hopes from this trip but it turned out to be much better than expected!
This travelogue reminded me of the movie – The Freedom Writers Diary. It was on a similar scale but I suppose it happened in California. An interesting aspect to note is that every state in US has history involving freedom rights for colored people. And so did India. But you must note that the caste system which is not based on color or your per-capita income but on your ancestral background is still rampant & so deeply ingrained that its now difficult to even attempt to eradicate it. What were predominantly 4 primary castes have spawned off almost a 100-150 sub-castes which is quite disgusting given the way Indian government encourages its growth to sustain its vote banks. Its prevalent every where but the way you handle is what differentiates you from the other nations. I think America had quite well handled the challenge to an extent.
And your tidbit on Lambert’s Cafe is quite a wake-up note!
@Zoya – Thanks for your long and thoughtful comment. I know you have recommended Freedom Writers Diary earlier before. The caste system in India is unfortunately looked as a system of discrimination but more part of the culture – hence people just dont even notice it.