They said white students were eager to attend Central because of its tradition of academic achievement, the quality of its teaching and the value of a Central High diploma in the college-admissions game. Members of the class of 1997 were accepted to every Ivy League university except Dartmouth. The daughter of Gov. Mike Huckabee is among the 1,813 students at Central. The children of the Clinton administration officials Thomas McLarty III and Bruce Lindsey went there. Had her father not received a job transfer to Washington, Chelsea Clinton would probably have attended as well, friends of the Clintons said.
Rutherford is white.
On Sept. 25, the actual anniversary of the day that the nine black students finally enrolled at Central High, Clinton will return to his native state to deliver what his aides describe as a major address on race relations. He will be introduced by Fatima McKindra, a self-possessed senior who is the first black female president of the student body. In a poignant moment of symbolic stagecraft, Clinton is expected to hold open the front door to the school, as the Little Rock Nine, now in their mid-50s, cross the threshold once again. The presidential visit coincides with an array of symposiums on the events of 1957 and with the opening of a Central High visitor center across the street from the school housed in an old Mobil service station. It features exhibits about the confrontation between Faubus and Eisenhower and about the campaign of abuse waged against the black students once they entered the school.