On September 23, 1957, Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas became desegregated, an event that was neither voluntary nor pleasant: President Eisenhower called out the National Guard to protect nine African-American students from a hostile white crowd who showered the youngsters with vicious racial epithets and threats of physical violence. Fifty years later, this HBO-aired documentary revisits the titular high school's painful history while also examining the current state of race relations within its classrooms. Only one of the nine African-American students from the 1957 desegregation, Minnijean Brown, is present for the observation of the 50th anniversary, and its clear that a half-century has not erased the memory of her traumatic introduction to the school, which is today integrated in concept but self-segregated within the student body. Filmmakers Brent and Craig Renaud do a masterful job of weaving the still-shocking newsreel footage from 1957 together with contemporary material to create a compelling and socially troubling film. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (P. Hall)
Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later
(2007) 70 min. DVD: $24.98. HBO Video (avail. from most distributors). Closed captioned. ISBN: 0-7831-5718-5. Volume 23, Issue 1
Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later
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