On July 27, 1954, the school district of Charleston, Arkansas, unanimously voted to integrate the town’s public schools. Charleston was the first school district in the former Confederate States of America to integrate. The school board agreed to integrate in part on the advice of a young local attorney, future Arkansas Governor and Senator Dale Bumpers. In 1998, Senator Bumpers authored legislation to designate Charleston High School as a National Commemorative Site. In 2007, Bumpers returned to Charleston to deliver a speech at the dedication of the Charleston National Commemorative Site. Pryor Center staff recorded video of the speech, which recounts an unexpected and largely forgotten story of school integration in the South, one defined not be violence or massive resistance, but by collaboration and tolerance.
