Little Rock Central High: 50 Years Later Analysis

The film, Eyes on the Prize: Fighting Back, Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas is put to the test. During the Supreme Court case of Brown Vs The Board of Education, many people fought for schools to end segregation of the students. This means that black and white students would attend the same schools together. The Supreme Court case made its final decision and made it illegal to segregate students. Central High School was the school that let black students in first. The NAACP let in 9 black students at Little Rock and they were called the Little Rock Nine. Even though many people fought to not have them there, President Eisenhower fought to keep them there. This led to an uproar from the community and a lot of violence. At one point the governor even has to call out the national guard and the students had to be escorted to class by police. By the end of the film, only one black student is left to graduate

Winter of 2008, Black History Month, and my third grade music teacher, announces, “Stand up if you would have been a victim of segregation,” following with, “Now, everyone look around.” February. The month of Rosa Parks, “I Had A Dream,” marches, and sit-ins. The month I had begun to despise greater each year. The month where I would be chosen to lead many readings and join classroom discussions, as if my being ‘black’ would provide some clarity that would enhance the learning experience for my fellow peers.

Is the n-word an acceptable word? Few might say yes, but the vast majority would say no. The origin and meaning of the n-word should be unacceptable to all African Americans. The word was meant to be used in a harmful way and will always be seen as offensive. No matter how the slang word is used as a term of endearment, the true meaning will be permanently there. The n-word should never be used in any manner towards anyone due to its origin of creation.

Racism will always exist. It exists everywhere. Continents. Countries. Cities. Communities. Even school playgrounds. Everywhere. Of course, many societies have evolved and are much more accepting of difference than they were sixty years ago, but there is always work to be done. The documentary Prom Night In Mississippi explores a community in Mississippi called Charleston, which segregates its prom for black and white students, until 2008, when the first integrated one was held. Morgan Freeman, who lives in Charleston, offered to pay for their prom as long as it was integrated. His first offer in 1997 was turned down, but in 2008, it was finally accepted. It is shocking to think that such blatant racism still exists in the twenty-first century, but, unfortunately, it does.

How would an individual feel if their school was integrated? Or had conditions so bad to the point where they can’t focus on their education? Well I’ve been given multiple sources to analyze Detroit Public Schools and schools in the 1950’s to tell you how they dealt with these issues and many others; So, I’ll be comparing and contrasting the two.

What does it mean to be black? This a question that many black children seem to ask themselves as they are growing up. There is a popularization of black culture in America. From the music that people listen to, to television shows, movies, dances and various other things, the black culture is entertaining for all. African American children who grow up in a predominantly suburban area with many different races are always searching for their racial identity. They may have family members or friends that live in a more urban or “hood” area who influence their lives. They may be stereotyped by their peers at school and in their neighborhood to be a certain way because they are black. The paper will discuss all of these factors and find out what

Freedom Writers written and directed by Richard LaGravenese , based on the book, The Freedom Writers Diary, by The Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell .“At 16, I’ve probably witnessed more dead bodies than a mortician,” says a Woodrow Wilson High School student, before matter-of-factly describing a life in which gang and domestic violence are everyday occurrences.1 Racism , that is, basing on racial, people are divided into different social classes. Racism not only be the reason to prejudice students, but also be the root of violence. As Eva says: “schools are like the city and the city is just like a person, all of them divided into separate sections, depending on tribes.” 2Shortly after the Rodney King riots in L.A., new school teacher Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) wants to experience the difficult freshman class of Wilson High School, made up of some ethnic groups’ kids that the system has given up on. The optimistic young teacher Erin comes up with her confidence to try her best to get the kids to learn more about themselves and the world around them, finding the meaning of their lives in journals, while fighting with fellow teachers and the school principal about her techniques. Erin tries her best to break the ice between the people with love and understanding, while school including dean keeps on racism and regard students as hopeless people. More generally, Basing on racism, on the one hand, some people that are

“We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.”

The Prom Night in Mississippi was an extraordinary documentary, which encompassed the racial and discriminative views and actions from a small community and school district from the early 2000s. While watching the video multiple emotions and thoughts rushed through my head, however what stuck out to me the most was how recent this document took place, and how severe certain individuals where to possessing certain racial qualities.

Americans, when they think of Civil Rights probably think of the Civil Rights Movement. During the civil rights era African Americans fought to be treated as equals by fighting segregated schools, for their voting rights, and for their basic right that every American has today. To say that education is our civil rights movement of today is inaccurate. Antonio Alvarez’s narrative “Out Of My Hands” focuses on a financially struggling family, but proving that they can succeed. David L. Kirp’s article “The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools” reinforces the idea that even though a community might be poor, that doesn’t have to reflect the quality of education students receive. Horace Mann, known as the godfather of American public education, expresses

Black children go through a process like no other child of any other race does. From birth they are taught about what society thinks their place is and how institutions are going to treat them in the future. As a child they experience events of racism and discrimination, but they do not really know why it 's happening or why racial tensions are so bad in the US society. Growing into an adolescent or teenager they understand what racism is, but yet to know the extent to which institutional racism is going to affect their lives. As adults, the stage of resistance begins. They know what racism is and how the different systems of racism marginalize them. In ‘Black Boy’ by Richard Wright, this process happens relatively slowly, growing up in Jim

Imagine getting up everyday before high school and preparing for war. For Melba Pattillo Beals this fear was a scary reality. In the beginning of “Warriors Don 't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock 's Central High” by Melba Pattillo Beals, she begins talking about what it’s like to come back to the haunted racist halls of Little Rock Central High School. This was a time when civil rights was a major issue and the color separation between white and black was about to be broken. Melba and nine other students entered Central High School becoming the first African American students to go to an all white school. Her book describes the hardship and struggle she faced growing up in Little Rock and what it was like to be hurt and abused all throughout high school.

History is a comprised of individual choices. Those choices can work to include or exclude others. In 1957 nine black students chose to integrate Little Rock Central High School and a whole group of white kids worked to exclude them. There are three sets of primary source documents about the expulsion of one of these Little Rock Nine, Minnijean Brown. These document sets change one’s thinking about this expulsion because the first documents suggest that she was expelled for dumping chili on a white boy; the second sets of documents suggest that she was expelled because she retaliated against a white girl; and the final documents state that the expulsion was because she was acting as if she belonged at Central High School.

Johnathan Kozol’s article “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid” targets today’s society. He states how segregation today isn’t any different from how it was decades back. The intended audience can initially be everyone because the article stresses the importance of how America hasn’t really gone through much change. Kozol uses several methods of development to produce a successful argument. He persuasively constructs his argument using logos, while backing up his claim with factual information. His argument deals with racial isolation which some may deem to be either “normal” or not necessarily problematic. His cause and effect reasoning explains how segregation in cities result in heavily impacting not just people,

Every child gets “The REAL Talk,” but every talk is different. For most African Americans the the talk includes how the world is not a fair place if a person is different, if African Americans want to get somewhere, they have to work twice as hard, and In the US last year, 223 African Americans were killed by police due to police brutality. One third of those people were unarmed, and should not have been seen as a threat, but they were still killed. 12 of these people were under the age of 18. African Americans should not have to be scared to go outside any day thinking they might not make it home. African Americans feel targeted in today’s society because so many innocent African Americans are being incarcerated, shot, and killed. Since 2001, it is 6.1 times likelier to be incarcerated as a black man than a white man. This is all because of skin color. Black Lives Matter (BLM) was a group created to raise awareness for the heinous acts the have presented itself to the black community