Little Rock, city, capital of Arkansas, U.S. It is the seat of Pulaski county, on the Arkansas River in the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains in the central part of the state. In 1722 Bernard de la Harpe, a French explorer, saw on the bank of the Arkansas River two conspicuous rock formations, which he reputedly named La Petite Roche and La Grande Roche. Near the smaller rock was a Quapaw Indian settlement, which La Harpe made his trading post. The “little rock” later became the abutment for a railway bridge. The “big rock,” 2 miles (3 km) further upstream, was the site of an army post and later a veterans hospital.
In 1812 William Lewis, a trapper, built his home at the “little rock.” In 1819 Arkansas became a territory, with its capital at Arkansas Post. The site of Little Rock was surveyed in 1820, and the territorial capital was moved there the next year. The capitol building where the legislature met from 1821 to 1836 is preserved in the Territorial Capitol Restoration, along with a block of buildings of the period, including the Old State House (designed by Gideon Shyrock and the second of Little Rock’s three state capitols) and the first print shop of the Arkansas Gazette, which merged in 1991 with the Arkansas Democrat to form the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Little Rock was strongly anti-Union at the outbreak of the American Civil War, and the Federal arsenal was seized by state authorities in 1861. In September 1863 Federal troops under General Frederick Steele occupied the city and established a pro-Union government.
With the expansion of the railways in the 1880s, Little Rock became an important transportation centre. Industry in the metropolitan area experienced planned, diversified growth beginning in the 1940s, mainly because of the proximity of raw materials (timber, oil, gas, coal, and bauxite). The city became a river port in 1969 with the opening of a system of locks and dams on the Arkansas River. Large railroad shops are located across the river at North Little Rock. Little Rock is the chief market for the surrounding agricultural region.
In 1957 the city became the focus of world attention over the right of nine black students to attend Central High School under a gradual desegregation plan adopted by the city school board in accordance with the 1954 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court holding racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The result was a test of power between the federal and state governments. Governor Orval E. Faubus ordered the state militia to prevent blacks from entering the school, but the state was enjoined from interfering by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who sent federal troops to the city to maintain order. Within the next decade, desegregation was accomplished in all public schools. In 1998 President William J. Clinton signed legislation designating Central High School a national historic site and awarded each of the “Little Rock Nine” the Congressional Gold Medal.
Little Rock’s economy is based on government and financial services, food processing, and the manufacture of such items as cosmetics, telecommunications equipment, and data-transmission equipment.
The city’s educational institutions include the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (1927; formerly Little Rock University), Philander Smith College (1877), the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (1879), Arkansas Baptist College (1884), and the state schools for the blind and the deaf. MacArthur Park surrounds the Arkansas Arts Center and General Douglas MacArthur’s birthplace. Little Rock Air Force Base (1955) is northeast, near Jacksonville. Pinnacle Mountain State Park is 15 miles (24 km) to the west, and Toltec Mounds State Park, site of a prehistoric ceremonial centre, is 15 miles to the east. Inc. town, 1831; city, 1836. Pop. (2000) 183,133; Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway Metro Area, 610,518; (2010) 193,524; Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway Metro Area, 699,757.