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How far we've come, how far to go... Fifty years ago, Little Rock Central High School became a symbol of the struggles and hopes of the Civil Rights Movement. Today, it is a stark reminder of the complicated road to equality.
America Plus presents Little Rock Central High: 50 Years Later, an eye-opening look at education, race and class at the landmark high school today, where educational equity remains a complex issue.
This 70-minute film takes an unprecedented, all-access look into Little Rock Central High School, in Little Rock, AK. Once a flashpoint during the Civil Rights Movement, Little Rock Central High is now essentially two separate schools, in which white students matriculate to some of the most prestigious colleges in the country, while only a fraction of black students pass basic reading requirements.
In 2006, filmmakers and Little Rock natives Brent and Craig Renaud began filming at Little Rock Central High as the school and the nation prepared for the 50th Anniversary of the famous 'Integration Crisis of 1957,' when nine African-American students were prevented from entering the building by an angry mob of whites outside the school. This film follows present-day Central High students and faculty both in and out of school, along with community leaders and one of the original 'Little Rock Nine', who reflects on how much - and how little - has evolved since she courageously crossed the school's steps nearly half a century ago.
The firestorm of desegregation that ripped through the American South in the 1960s centered on Little Rock in September 1957, when Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus ordered National Guard troops to prevent the nine black teenagers from entering Central High School.
His order defied the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v Board of Education ruling, which stated that black students had the right to attend integrated schools. A federal judge then ordered the Governor to allow the students to enter Central, which they did on September 25, under the protection of the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army.
