The past and future of Hall High School
The past and future of Hall High School HALL HIGH SCHOOL Brian Chilson
When Hall High School opened in 1957, it was part of a plan to forestall broad integration of the Little Rock School District. It was three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, and the same year that would see the desegregation crisis unfold at Little Rock Central High.
Anticipating change under Brown, Superintendent Virgil Blossom and the School Board opened the all-black Horace Mann High School in what was mostly black East Little Rock in 1956. Hall was built a couple of blocks west of University, in what was then an affluent white neighborhood in West Little Rock.
Credit: Tanya Rosen-Jones
Kazim Ali was born in the United Kingdom and has lived transnationally in the United States, Canada, India, France, and the Middle East. His books encompass multiple genres, including the volumes of poetry
Inquisition,
The Far Mosque, winner of Alice James Books’ New England/New York Award;
The Fortieth Day;
Bright Felon and
Wind Instrument. His novels include the recently published
The Secret Room: A String Quartet and among his books of essays are the hybrid memoir
Silver Road: Essays, Maps & Calligraphies and
Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice. He is also an accomplished translator (of Marguerite Duras, Sohrab Sepehri, Ananda Devi, Mahmoud Chokrollahi and others) and an editor of several anthologies and books of criticism. After a career in public policy and organizing, Ali taught at various colleges and universities, including Oberlin College, Davidson College, St. Mary’s College of California, and