LITTLE ROCK — Former President Clinton said Monday during the Little Rock Nine Foundation Gala that many of today's issues - from persistent inequality to terrorism - share the same problem that led to the desegregation crisis in 1957.
"What is at the root of all this? The desperate need to believe that someone else is inferior to us," Clinton said. "The gnawing hunger to believe that our differences are what matter most, not our common humanity."
More than 1,300 attended the scholarship fundraiser at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. Nine college scholarship winners were also recognized.
The event culminated the second day of a whirlwind of activities in Little Rock commemorating the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School and honoring the Little Rock Nine.
In addition to Clinton, Gov. Mike Beebe and several members of the Little Rock Nine spoke. Gwin Ifill, managing editor of the Public Broadcasting System program Washington Week, moderated the evening.
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson attended, as did Lt. Gov. Bill Halter and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel. Clinton noted the attendance of others, including retired Gen. Wesley Clark, former NATO commander; Dirk Kempthorne, U.S. Secretary of the Interior; Susan Eisenhower, former President Eisenhower's granddaughter; and Rodney Slater, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Clinton said his wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democrat from New York, could not attend the event as planned because of a Senate vote.
Clinton said he was thankful that the Nine opened doors for others, but he also highlighted existing problems and challenges facing the nation.
"It is important not to overlook the persistence of problems - the disparity in income, education, health care, incarceration rates, access to credit, the continuing division of outlook [and] different perceptions on the same set of facts," Clinton said.
He said the country now faces new challenges as it grows more diverse.
"The increasing complexity of America with more and more racial and ethnic and religious diversity is going to present an interesting challenge for us to be able to deal with the unfinished legacy of the past and all of the incoming challenges of the moment.
"The great question of the 21st century for this country is whether it will bring greater unity and progress toward the American dream in a much, much more interesting country, whether it will bring us closer to a global community or whether it will see us break apart not just along the blackwhite color line, but shattered into a hundred shards of stained glass," he said.
Monday's event was the first major fundraiser for the Little Rock Nine Foundation. Although organizers did not release figures on the amount raised at the event, 1,300 tickets were sold for at least $200 each, they said.
Scholarship winners, who are now college students, will receive $10,000 over two years. The scholarships were awarded based on essays, grade-point averages and letters of recommendation to students from underperforming schools across the country.
Scholarship winners were:
Curtis Flournoy, Wilbur D. Mills University Studies High School in the Pulaski County Special School District.
Jose Holloway, Little Rock Central High School.
Ruanda McFerren, Northside High School in Fort Smith.
Eivi Colmenero, North High School in Denver.
Tiffany Romero, North High School in Denver.
Lindsey Brown, Craigmont High School in Memphis.
Veronica Billingsley, Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis.
John Williams, Moises E. Molina High School in Dallas.
Daisha Henry, Franklin D. Roosevelt High School in Dallas.
Two of the Arkansas scholarship recipients - Holloway and Flournoy, who are black - won their scholarships in part because of the essays they wrote. Both college freshmen wrote about the educational opportunities they received because of the bravery of the Nine.
"I go to a very elite school," said Flournoy, a political science and political economy major at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass.
"I eat lunch every day with millionaires' kids. I'm a kid who hasn't come from a lot, but I have the opportunity to do this because of the Little Rock Nine."
In his essay, Flournoy said he focused on Elizabeth Eckford and the stoicism she displayed in the famed portrait of her surrounded by the mob.
"You have to be so committed, so full of purpose, to go on despite all that," he said.
Each of the scholarship recipients have one of the trailblazing Nine as a mentor. Flournoy's mentor is Terrence Roberts, now a college professor, like Flournoy aspires to be.
Holloway met his mentor, Jefferson Thomas, for the first time on Sunday.
"It was like shaking hands with history," said Holloway, a music major who specializes in the French horn at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia. "I would not have even been at Central High School - one of the best high schools in the country - without him."
Both Flournoy and Holloway credited their high schools with preparing them for college - particularly the accelerated Advanced Placement classes they took.
But at Central, as at many high schools, blacks remain in the minority in Advanced Placement courses, although more than half of Central's student body is now black.
Such courses give students the chance to learn college-level material and earn college credit while still in high school.
Holloway acknowledged thatthis is a challenge the school still faces.
"The problem was that black students didn't push themselves hard enough to go the extra mile and take AP classes," he said.
"But I was one of the ones who did take those AP classes at Central."
He added that many black students have not been steered toward the challenging courses.
"The other races, they have been exposed to AP classes from the beginning, and the financial situation is there to prepare them," Holloway said.
"Some blacks have never been outside of Little Rock. But I wanted to get outside and see what was there."
Susan Eisenhower, who was 1 5 /2 years old in 1957, said after the gala that she was in Newport, R.I., when her grandfather decided to send federal troops to Little Rock.
"I think he inevitably regarded this as one of his most important decisions," she said of her grandfather.
"When people ask me whether he was serious about civil rights, I tell them, 'Well, as you know, he sent in the 101st Airborne - the people who were at D-Day.'"
Jackson said to members of the media outside the ballroom that work must continue toward securing civil rights.
"We must fight for an equal playing field and equal access for all of America's children," he said.
In Washington on Monday, the U.S. House passed a resolution recognizing the anniversary and honoring the Little Rock Nine by a vote of 387-0. The Senate passed a similar measure Sept. 7.
Speaking in support of the resolution, Rep. Mike Ross, a Democrat, said that, "as we memorialize their legacies of bravery so that future generations of Americans will forever know their struggle, we can never forget the sacrifices endured by these nine individuals for the sake of progress on behalf of millions."
At the gala, Clinton encouraged audience members to remember the determination and courage of the Little Rock Nine when they think about the inequalities in the world today.
"My fellow Americans, it is easy to celebrate the courage of others for what they did 50 years ago," he said,
"It is another thing altogether to build a world our children would like to live in 50 years from now."
Front Section, Pages 1, 4 on 09/25/2007