What did Clinton describe as the lasting legacy of Little Rock for him? For the country

Speaking from the steps of Little Rock Central High School, the same steps climbed 40 years ago by nine pathbreaking black students and their paratrooper protectors, President Clinton warned Americans today of the dangers of racial separation and pleaded with them not to give up on the idea of integration.

Although he offered no programmatic solutions, Mr. Clinton used the 40th anniversary of the desegregation of Central High to deplore that black and white Americans, despite the abolition of legalized segregation, remain disturbingly isolated from each other in their schools and in their everyday lives.