Last night I was able to check out, “LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL: 50 YEARS LATER”. This is the school that was desegregated by 9 black students back in the 50’s in Little Rock, Arkansas, so HBO camera crews went back to see if anything had changed in the last 50 years. From watching this, I can tell you, nothing has. There is still an imaginary race line dividing the school. Not only that, but you see the obvious difference between the way the black kids view the school and the way white kids do. What is happening to us as a people? Central High is one of the top ranked public high schools in America, the rich and poor both attend. So why do some of the black kids go there and not apply themselves? It was so sad to watch how our young black men and women were acting and how they filled the remedial classes or were the teenage mothers. Yeah, we can blame it on parents, community and absent fathers. But when do these young teens start taking responsibility for their own lives?

This not only happens in Little Rock but in communites around the country.

Synopsis:

The wave of desegregation that transformed the South during the 1960s began in Little Rock in September 1957. After Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus defied the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling and ordered the National Guard to prevent nine black teenagers from entering Central High School, President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by sending troops from the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army to protect the students as they entered the building.

But what is the legacy of the Civil Rights struggle for equal education today? To mark the 50th anniversary of the forced integration of Central High School, Little Rock natives Brent and Craig Renaud provide a candid look at the lives of contemporary Central High students in the documentary LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL: 50 YEARS LATER.

Brent and Craig Renaud followed the lives of contemporary Central High students, teachers and administration, as well as community leaders, over the course of a year for this intimate documentary, visiting classes, school meetings and assemblies, teenagers’ homes and community events. Sharing the stories of both black and white students, the special reveals the opportunities and challenges facing them in and out of the classroom.