[Gráinne]

There are two such museums in Little Rock; three if you count the Historic Arkansas Museum, which does touch on slavery and the Civil War.

*The Mosaic Templars building, which housed an African-American insurance, banking, and even nursing system for the community around it, when many companies owned by whites would not serve blacks. They even sold headstones. The museum sets the scene: the late 19th-early 20th century of Jim Crow. Somehow they received an old drinking fountain with the "Colored" sign still on it. I was amazed at how many African-Americans rose to prosperity and how strong the community really was, despite segregation and the threat of terror.

*The Central High School Historic Site, which recently opened a new museum across the street from the school. When they were old enough, I took my kids there. Both were surprised that so-called "separate but equal" was a whole lot of separate but nowhere near equal. Neither really understand how, not that far out of my lifetime, they couldn't go to school with their black friends (or any other minority; the Chinese were segregated, too). The picture of Elizabeth Eckford trying to go to school while a white woman shouts epithets doesn't line up with their ideas of the 50's from Happy Days reruns.