The Elizabeth Eckford Bus Bench at Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site

On September 3, 1957, the night before a group of ten black students were planning to attend Little Rock Central High School for the first time, they were called and told not to come to the school alone. Instead, they were to meet near the school and proceed in a group escorted by adults, which included a few white ministers. Unfortunately, Elizabeth Eckford’s family did not have a telephone at home. Although there was an intention to inform her the following morning, that did not happen.

Eckford rode a city bus alone to the school where angry protestors greeted her with racial chants and threats. Unable to enter the school due to the Arkansas National Guard blockade, she tried to escape the mob by making her way to another bus stop at the corner of West 16th and South Park streets, which is just a half a block from the high school. Eckford sat on a bench at the bus stop for 35 minutes, enduring a barrage of hate from the protestors, with some even spitting at her.

The Elizabeth Eckford Bus Bench now on the corner of West 16th Street and Little Rock Nine Way (formerly South Park Street) is a replica of the bench Eckford sat on. It was installed in 2018. Visitors are welcome to sit on the bench and reflect upon the hateful event that led to a trauma so severe that it has affected Eckford ever since.

As of this writing in September 2026, Eckford is still alive. She is now 84 years old.

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