Little Rock is a city within central Arkansas, capital of the state, and seat of Pulaski County. The city is located on a bluff within the south bank of the Arkansas River, opposite North Little Rock. Little Rock is a financial, commercial, manufacturing, and distribution center for a region with ample sources of raw materials, including petroleum, natural gas, coal, and timber. One of several cities’ products is communications, aerospace, and electronic equipment; lumber and wood products; printed materials; and processed food. Little Rock Air Force Base is nearby. The area is served by Little Rock National Airport at Adams Field.
Attractions in Little Rock include the State Capitol, inaugurated in 1911; the Governor's Mansion; Quapaw Quarter, a district of renewed structures that includes the Old State House; the Arkansas Territorial Restoration, a group of refurbished homes dating from the early 19th century; and MacArthur Park, comprising the Arkansas Arts Center, the Museum of Science and History, and also the birthplace of General Douglas MacArthur. A prominent annual event is River fest, held Memorial Day weekend. The city is home to Philander Smith College (1877), the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (1879), Arkansas Baptist College (1884), a campus (started in 1927) of the University of Arkansas, and two junior colleges.
The Little Rock region, then occupied by Quapaw people, was visited by French explorer Bénard de la Harpe in 1722. He made a trading post around the Arkansas River near the smaller of two rock outcroppings (from which the city's name comes from). In 1812 William Lewis, a fur trapper, built a home near to the "little rock." A community developed, and in 1821 it was crowned capital of Arkansas Territory. It continued as the state capital when Arkansas was admitted to the Union in 1836, and incorporated being a city that same year. In the outbreak of the American Civil War throughout 1861, the inhabitants of Little Rock strongly supported the Confederacy, but in September 1863, Union forces under General Frederick Steele seized the city. Little Rock developed into an important transportation center in the 1880s, and its development as a manufacturing hub started in the 1940s.
Worldwide interest was focused on Little Rock in September 1957, when nine black students unsuccessfully attempted to enroll in the city's Central High School. Until that time only white students had attended the school, regardless of a federal order that barred continued segregation. When the black students were refused entry into the school, sporadic rioting started, and as tension mounted, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troops into the city to preserve order. Under their protection, the black students completed the school year. The next year the school board closed the city's high schools, but when they reopened in September, 1959, many black students were accepted, and in the 1960s integration was gradually achieved. During the 1960s and 1970s the city enjoyed substantial growth and urban renewal, due in part to a federal navigation project on the Arkansas River that developed Little Rock a significant regional port. Population has risen steadily since the 1960s. From the 1980s up until the early 1990s, Bill Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, resided in Little Rock; in 1993 he became the 42nd president of the United States.
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