LITTLE ROCK — Black and white Little Rock residents prayed and sang together Sunday afternoon during an interracial and interfaith worship service that would have been unimaginable in the city 50 years ago.
"God has brought us a mighty long way," Bishop Steven Arnold of St. Mark Baptist Church told the crowd of about 400 gathered at Robinson Center Music Hall in downtown Little Rock.
"All we have to do is look at this stage, look at this audience. All you have to do is look all around you. We've made some progress. We're able to come together. We're able to sing together. We're able to fellowship with one another."
The bishop stressed that "there is still room for growth and improvement."
The ecumenical service took place on the first of three days of activities meant to commemorate when nine black teenagers desegregated Central High School under the protection of the 101st Airborne.
Also on Sunday, the Little Rock Nine held a news conference and the U.S. Secretary of the Interior toured the new Central High visitor center.
Arnold and the Rev. Vic Nixon of Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church organized the ecumenical service in conjunction with the Central High 50th Anniversary Commission.
Other participating religious leaders were Rabbi Eugene H. Levy of Temple B'nai Israel, Imam Johnny Hasan of The Islamic Center for Human Excellence, and the Rev. Betsy Singleton of Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church.
A half century ago, the question of integration divided the city's religious groups.
Some white ministers preached that racial mixing violated biblical ordinance, while those who did speak out in favor of the Little Rock Nine often saw their congregations lose members. Even many black churchgoers feared the ongoing racial tension would only further marginalize the city's blacks. Many in Little Rock's small Jewish population supported desegregation, but as religious minorities, they held little sway in thelarger community.
On Sunday, no one questioned whether desegregation was the right thing to do.
Choirs from St. Mark Baptist, Pulaski Heights United Methodist, Parkview High, Hall Highand Central High School joined together in anthems of praise for God's love and gifts for all people.
Yet on the stage, the border between the adult choirs of the largely white Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church and the largely black St. Mark's Baptist Church was readily apparent. The school choirs were integrated. In the audience, people tended to sit in small groups of black or white people with very few interracial groups sitting side by side.
"We are still a racially divided people in this community as any observant person driving down Interstate 630 is fully aware," Nixon said. "We are still a racially divided people in our communities of faith. ... The hard work of reconciliation is yet to be done - reconciliation with God [and] reconciliation with one another.If all we do is use this time to remember, then shame on us."
Terrence Roberts, one of the nine students who desegregated Central High, concluded the service with a prayer of reconciliation. He stood holding hands with the current student body presidents of Little Rock's high schools.
"Help us as we leave this place to try always to see beyond the ordinary, to accept the challenge you have given us to live collectively in ways that support and enhance life on earth," he prayed. "Inspire us to ask the necessary questions, to receive the answers with humility and to act swiftly and decisively as we move forward on the road you have chosen for us to follow."
Earlier Sunday, the Little Rock Nine participated in a news conference at the University of Arkansas Clinton School for Public Service in Little Rock. More than 100 journalists, Clinton School students and others attended.
The Nine fielded questions ranging from their thoughts on whether the country is resegregating to the significance of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. They also spoke of their memories of Central High.
"Is America resegregated?" asked Ernest Green. "In many ways, we are, and that's why I think all of you are here. Hopefully, one of the outcomes from this recognition is what are the efforts we are going to use to try and move away from that."
Melba Pattillo Beals said she wanted to desegregate Central High 50 years ago so she could have access to opportunity, not to sit next to white students.
"So, if segregation is an indication that the access to opportunity is being reduced, we're quite concerned about that," shesaid.
Pattillo Beals and Minnijean Brown Trickey said they were willing to work to address issues related to resegregation.
"If the Little Rock Nine just 50 years later can be a catalyst for social change, we'll take that responsibility just as we [did] in 1957," Brown Trickey said.
Brown Trickey also responded to a question regarding the significance of Barack Obama's run for the White House. She said the discussion about Obama's candidacy and Sen. Hillary Clinton's candidacy shouldn't focus on their race or sex.
"Why are you still talking about it like that?" she asked. "We're in 2007. We haven't gotten over that. We haven't transcended that."
"Haven't we grown up yet?" she asked.
Others recalled their experiences at Central.
Elizabeth Eckford said that during the first two weeks at Central, the Nine experienced friendly overtures from white students, but those ended quickly.
"Among the nine of us, there are perhaps five people that we remember who were kind to us," she said. "The majority of people turned their backs and the message seemed to be was that they didn't care about what was happening to us."
Eckford said that now, some of her former classmates say they were kind to her and the eight others "because they want to be seen as good people."
She said she finds those statements "very, very annoying."
Eckford said that although federal troops were inside the school, they did not prevent daily assaults on her and the other black students. Pattillo Beals said the presence of the troops is the reason she is still alive.
Eckford said she would not choose to desegregate Central again because the experience made her a more assertive person. As a result, she now would not be able to quietly take the harassment, she said.
Several of the Nine recalled one or two teachers they had who made it clear that their class would focus on academics and treated the black students the same as white students. But other teachers said that they did not like having a black student in their class, they said.
Gloria Ray Karlmark recalleda white girl who befriended her. They would exchange notes in class, but she didn't want Karlmark to acknowledge her in the school hallway because she feared that her family would be ostracized.
Still, Karlmark appreciated the girl's friendliness in the classroom.
"I cannot begin to tell you what it meant to have one class during the day with someone I could communicate with," Karlmark said. "It meant a lot."
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne toured the new Central High School National Historic Site Visitor Center and the school grounds Sunday evening.
Kempthorne, whose department oversees the National Park Service, will speak during today's dedication ceremony ofthe new Visitor Center and will represent President Bush during Tuesday's commemoration ceremony at Central.
At many national historic sites, visitors view a historic property and try to imagine activity there, Kempthorne said.
"This is unique, in that it literally has created a window - a panoramic view of the history that it's depicting in 1957 - and yet in that picture you see today the same high school and the students," he said.
"It's a story that has to be told and that's part of the responsibility that those in the National Park Service - it's a mission that they proudly and passionately accept and that is to tell the story of our history," Kempthorne said. "We are America the beautiful, the historic and the cultural, and this really points to the historic."
Arkansas, Pages 7, 12 on 09/24/2007