Day 8 – "I still believe in a place called Hope." – Bill Clinton

Little Rock Central High School

Today we had a bit of long drive. We started in Memphis in the rain and mid-40’s and got to Dallas with clear skies and 70 degrees. The trip took us about 10 hours, but we made a couple of touring stops along the way, plus we detoured into Oklahoma for about an hour.  Two reasons for the side trip.  The main reason was that Jeanne had never been to Oklahoma.  The second was that we got to cross the Red River, twice.  The Red River is quite pretty with scenic bends, kind of meandering along.  It was, however, not in the least red.

We stopped at two National Park Service sites while in Arkansas.  The first was Central High School in Little Rock (see photo).  In the fall of 1957 Central High (see photo) was the center of desegregation violence when nine African-American high school students tried to attend the previously all-white high school.  In the end, President Eisenhower was compelled to use federal troops to restore order and allow the school to be integrated.  This was the beginning of the end for segregation in America, thank goodness.  Central High, by the way, is still a functioning high school.

Bill Clinton's bed in Hope, Arkansas

Our second stop was much a lighter one.  We stopped in Hope, Arkansas, to tour Bill Clinton’s boyhood home.  He actually lived in that house until he was four and I found that we had one thing in common besides being about the same age.  He was also a big Hopalong Cassidy fan (TV series in the mid-50’s) as a boy.  I didn't have the bedspread that he had, but we both had the same photo of Hopalong Cassiday with his horse.