Central High among group of sites seeking World Heritage designation

Little Rock Central High School
Little Rock Central High School

Little Rock's Central High School and 15 other landmarks of the civil-rights era are seeking the designation of cultural World Heritage sites by the United Nations, backers said Tuesday.

The nomination of the active high school — which is also a National Historic Site for its 1957 desegregation crisis — is being supported by the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, the two groups said.

Other sites nominated across seven states and Washington, D.C., include the Lincoln Memorial; the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.; the Lorraine Motel in Memphis; and Medgar Evers' house in Jackson, Miss.

The 16 sites are being submitted as a group to be considered for UNESCO designation by the World Heritage Committee made up of 21 countries. That process could take several years, according to a press release.

According to the Little Rock agency, the designation is intended to attract tourism to the site and to the region.

Of more than 1,000 World Heritage sites around the world, six are located in the Southern states, and three of those are considered cultural.

Those three are the San Antonio Missions in Texas, Monticello in Virginia and the Monumental Earthworks of Poverty Point in Louisiana.

Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

Upcoming Events