Click on a headline below to read selected stories from the special package of stories related to the 50th anniversary of the integration of Central High School in Little Rock. The original stories appeared in the Sept. 22, 2007, issue of Arkansas Catholic.
50 years after crisis, Church reflects on silence In 1957 as nine black teens entered Central High School in Little Rock, the Catholic Church in Arkansas watched and prayed. The Church had its own integration to implement and people of courage to help the process.
Parishioner looks back on challenges of being black and Catholic Black community suspicions about Catholics were added to the varying strains of being black in the South during John Gillam's 88 years and counting. Through it all, he has stayed true to his faith, successfully raised a large family and helped integrate the Church in Arkansas.
Father Harvey shares his unique gifts with diocese Raised around both his father's Catholic parish and his maternal relative's Baptist churches, Father Warren Harvey didn't realize there was a place for traditional black culture in Catholic worship until he was grown. That realization led him to the priesthood.
Fort Smith girls' school was integrated in 1952 For the sake of the record though, there was at least one bright spot on the Catholic racial scene in the diocese even before the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. It was the integration in the fall of 1952 of St. Scholastica Academy in Fort Smith, a four-year high school for girls, both boarders and day students.
Winning directory photo honors Our Lady of Guadalupe