House votes for coin commemorating Little Rock school

WASHINGTON (AP) – The House of Representatives moved Monday to mark the 50th anniversary of desegregation at Little Rock Central High School with a commemorative silver coin. Integration at the Arkansas high school in 1957 was the first major test of the Supreme Court’s ruling, three years earlier, against racial discrimination in public schools. The landmark civil rights case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, called such segregation unconstitutional. The House, by voice vote, authorized the U.S. Treasury to mint commemorative $1 coins in 2007, a half-century after nine black students became the first admitted to the high school under escort by U.S. Army troops. “The 1957 crisis in Little Rock, brought about by the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School, was a huge part of the march toward freedom and opportunity in America,” said bill sponsor Rep. Vic Snyder, an Arkansas Democrat. The Senate has not yet considered the bill. The 1 1/2-inch (4-centimeter) silver coins would have a design commemorating the school’s desegregation and its contribution to civil rights. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the $10 surcharge on coin sales could raise as much as $5 million for historic preservation and educational programs at the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, administered by the National Park Service. The budget office said recent commemorative coin sales suggest it would probably collect about $1.5 million.