"Choosing to Participate"

A new exhibit called "Choosing to Participate" opens at the Boston Public Library today. It highlights people who've made a difference, people such as Elizabeth Eckford.

In the BPL exhibit, she talks about what it was like to be one of the black students desegregating a Little Rock, Arkansas, high school in 1957, "I saw the guards break ranks as students approached the sidewalk. And I passed a guard at the corner, as I'd seen some others do...and they closed ranks. So I thought, oh maybe I am not supposed to enter at this point."

Eckford's story is part of an interactive, multimedia exhibit that aims to raise awareness of the impact of our decisions. More than a quarter million adults and students have visited the exhibit, which has traveled nationally since it opened in Boston ten years ago.

Now it's back in Boston and WBUR's producer Sarah Bush visited the exhibit with Jimmie Jones. He's with Facing History and Ourselves, the organization in charge of the exhibit.