Desegregation ripped through the American South in 1957 when Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus ordered National Guard troops to prevent nine black teenagers (dubbed the “Little Rock Nine”) from entering Little Rock’s Central High School while President Dwight Eisenhower sent military troops to guard them from an angry mob of whites outside the school. Today, Little Rock Central High, though 60% black and 40% white, still struggles with educational equity.
Natives of Little Rock, filmmakers Brent and Craig Renaud explore the mark of the 50th anniversary of the famous “Integration Crisis of 1957,” in the the documentary by following 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.
Don’t miss this eye-opening documentary when Little Rock Central High: 50 Years Later premieres on September 25th (TONIGHT) at 8 p.m.—only on HBO! Another exclusive clip after the cut!
Sad, very sad and here comes the debate…
Wow little rock has over come alot and im happy to see that their documenting this but so sad for i dont have HBO.
MUST SEE…
LOL #2 we abt to reach 100 comment by the end of this afternoon
can someone plse explain 2 me about this coz i hav no idea wat little rock nine is
Hold up, my lil bro goes 2 college in Arkansas, and now I’m worried. Noooo!
@ 5. I provided links for more info. Please read the full post and click on the orange links for more info. Thanx.
Yeah I have to see this…and not that Irv Gotti CRAP!
Reading is Fundamental people.
i think intergration did more to hurt black folks than help. i mean why go somewhere that you aren’t wanted.
i think we would have been better off, making our schools better, teaching our children not just general history, but our history too, and making our schools so great and excellent that white folks would have been begging to come to us as opposed to us going to them.
Well it’s always nice to see a young black brotha doing his thang academically…no matter what the obstacles are…
Between the Jena and Lil Rock 9, what’s next, the Houston 12, cuz dey keep increasin niggaz by 3…
@10 You can’t live in a world thats segregated. I think the best thing that happen was to intergrate to show that no person is better than the next and all children’s should go to school together because they are children and the same age not because they have a different skin color. thats whats wrong with america today. A country built on separating based on color can’t help but live by that today.
wow this will be very interesting ill be sure to watch tonight at 8pm…
While I respect that struggle, I feel that we should have been fighting more to fix or improve education in our own Black schools instead of thinking “white is right” and leaving our communities and schools.
That’s the true downfall of the the Black community. Not supporting our own such as not supporting Black businesses keeping the money in our communities and leaving our neighborhoods because we are in the thinking that moving to “their” is moving up, especially if you haven’t helped try to improve your own community.
That’s just my opinion on the situation. I don’t find nothing impressive by someone trying to fit in with white folks. We need to “fit in” with our own first.
oh yes and @10 that was really dumb to say I mean look at all these nationally black colleges graduating people some getting shut down the quality education at these universities is not very high with some exceptions and they are loosing funding everyday, I really dont think that what u said was right, if integration had not happened u might not be educated enough to make such a statement at this very moment.
Hmm, I dissagree with #10 and Co-sign with #1. That’s all I got.
FYI, If u don’t get HBO, the story is in the Ebony issue with Queen Latifah on the cover. I read the entire story and all 9 of them were so successful in their years, I was amazed. This is definately an inspiring story!
I hear what you’re saying #10 but the sad thing is that we aren’t really integrated anyway. Statistically and realistically most schools are segregated, just not on the books so to speak. All you have to do is look at a school’s area code. Take for instance Los Angeles (primarily Hispanic), New York City (primarily Black or Hispanic), Alabama (primarily Black), Iowa (primarily White) … feel me? So integration is not the issue. The real issue is that there has never been and will never be equal treatment and equal educational opportunities in these so-called “integrated” school systems when minorities receive the least amount of funding, have lesser access to updated computers, books, etc and are situated in the most blighted areas possible. Ansd don’t ever think that creating a school system of any one race will make it better, especially for minorities because minorites do not hold the purse strings that fund the cities that pay the teachers that provide the best education.
Thanks # 18. I haven’t seen u post for a minute, Hope all is good. I will check that issue out.
education was more important during civil rights area…that was something they had to fight for. now everything is given freely, but the ignorance and segregation mentality is still there. One of the many reasons for Jena 6 rally….its not just about six boys in LA…its so much more
The noble & respectful thing to do at this juncture is to pay homage to all of those who took those brave steps to secure the freedoms that we enjoy today.
Thank you Little Rock Nine
Thank you Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Thank you NAACP
That sad thing about this is, let’s number the comments of this report and number the comments on the report of “MESS” such as diddy baby mama and things like that. Thats ridiculous.
On my comment on the issue, I do believe and am honored for the striving and the struggle our ancestor have fought through, and without them doing what they did we wouldn’t be where we are at today. But at the same time, NOW, because we know what they fought for, we SHOULD increase in supporting OUR schools, OUR neighborhoods, OUR zones, OUR business and things like that. NOT so much on a race or segregated thing, but right now our society as a culture of people is falling apart. We are not pushing education on OUR history to even begin to understand where we are going. Case in point the person who gave the comment about NOT knowing who the LIttle Rock Nine is. But I’m sure knew how to type up concreteloop (probably daily) to find information about other persons business.
Lets wake up people!
Nothing but truth, Nothing but love!
Can’t say I’m surprised which is tremendously sad.
Segregation isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Why would you want to be somewhere you’re not wanted. It’s catch 22, when Black folks did things on the up-and-up, we were shut down. Case and point Rosewood and Black Wall Street. Affluent black communities aren’t taken kindly by white folks. On the other hand, when things go wrong who gets the blame.
Integration* my mistake.
@25 – You mean “intergration” is not all it’s cracked up to be; and I feel you!
But courage is something you can’t teach; you either have it or you don’t and I just want to say ‘job well done’ to the Little Rock 9
I never heard of this. I wonder why, but thanks Angel for posting this. Sista got some research to do.
@#20 u very welcome, yea, I’m bak 4 a lil bit but be careful, deh is an IMPOSTER on heh but u will be able 2 diffirentiate who real and who fake, but let me go my man called about 5 times since i been on dis issue, he hates wen i blog, Lol, take care
I really wish I could watch this, but we cancelled HBO a few months ago. I hope it pops up on the internet somewhere because I’m interested in it. I’ll look for the article in Ebony.
25. Exactly.
And we are moving out of our communities and guess who trying to buy up our neighborhoods, renovating them and putting out folks who can’t afford to stay?
We can be all “We Our The World” but the reason why we are the weaker race as far as economy is because we ain’t sticking together trying to be like them instead of building up our own. That’s just the reality of it.
At 15 and 19, thanks, i think you all are making the point i was trying to make in a much more eloquent, and well thougt out way.
to everyone else: i am not saying that we should go off by ourselves and not interact with other people, i am just saying that sometimes the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, just look at what has happened over the last 50 years. you have less black kids graduating from high school than you did back then, so obvisously putting our children on buses and sending them across town wasn’t the answer.
and kids segregate themselves anyway, if you walk into any lunch room in america right now, you will see white tables, black tables, hispanic tables, don’t act like you all didn’t group off in school too.
I just wish that black folks would try and lift up their own communities before we go running somewhere else that’s all i am saying.
and all black charter schools have been started in several cities and have been proven to be very sucessful.
we have a kipp academy here in my hometown that is mostly black and they have a lot of black teachers and they teach black history and some of these children who were failing in intergrated environments with mostly white teachers are now suceeding and star students at this academy. so it can work. Kipp was founded by whites but they understood that sometimes the needs of black students are different they tried to cater to them.
that’s all i’m saying, but this a good debate and black people really need to talk about this, so i look forward to what everybody has to say, because the system is not working for our children and we better figure out what the problem is before it’s too late.
I’m a graduate of LRCH c/o 2000….little rock, Stand up!- Anyway. I’m not at all pleased with the way the HBO has presented this clip. Central is not at all segregated! And black students have the same opportunities as white students. Unfornately, our generation has a “money over bitches” mentality! Guys would rather be thugs, hustle for a quick dollar, shine on the streets, and have several women than to take advantage of whats in front of them, EDUCATION. With that being said, of course the white students seem to excel more, as they took advantage of their educational opportunities. And as we all know, people tend socialize with individiuals they have something in common with. Just as adults do in the work place, teens do in school. Fortunately, majority of my graduating class took advantage, and lots of us are college graduates and now productive citizens.
On to the next thing,— the run down neighborhoods that they’ve shown, are in fact present, but thats in all states. For every “ghetto”, theres two really nice subdivision to replace it.There are some really nice neighborhoods with mixed cultures to which students of all races reside in.
This kind of ish pisses me off. Our state has really tried to overcome the aftermath HBO’s “Banging in Little Rock” in the earlt 90′s…….. and has succeed, now this! HBO had to make ish look this way in order to create good ratings. Its all about Politics! Trust me when I say, its not like they’re portraying.
Once Judah enter’s the post, then we can really have a debate.
Man, we still got a long way to go.
@ 34 JUDAH IS NOT THE VOICE OF REASON . GIVE ME A BREAK .
ITS SO SAD THIS STILL CONTINUES IN 2007
I am proud to see how far we as black people have come over the past 60 years.
32. I feel you girl.
It’s a suburb in Dallas named Desoto which is predominately Black. It was mostly white at first but you know what they do when we move to their neighborhoods (we try to segregate but these a lot of these whites folks don’t want us with them).
But anyways, these Black folks are successful, it has a slew black owned businesses. and are thriving! Prime example of what happens when we aren’t trying to get away from each other.
#36, just because you dont like him dont mean you have to take it out on me. I find he makes good points when it comes to these topics, like it or not. So you give me a break.
To #33-
I graduate from Central this year and in the 7 years since you’ve been there it has definitely changed. Majority of what they’re saying is true, I’ve experienced it first hand. All the “diverse” and “mixed” pictures and videos that you see have been formulated. They’ve selected an “elite” group of students that they feel should represent them (or pretty much do their lying for them). I can’t wait to see the documentary because I think it will shed a speck of light on the larger issue that is integration at Little Rock Central High.
Most High schools and Middle schools are like this . The whites are together and the black are together , It’s not only in Little Rock . It’s sad but so.
Thanx CL for the notice…. I probably wouldn’t have turn the televis on HBO tonight.
Good look!
awww man i dont have HBO
Damn, I don’t have HBO.
RitaBeOne said:
To #33-
I graduate from Central this year and in the 7 years since you’ve been there it has definitely changed. Majority of what they’re saying is true, I’ve experienced it first hand. All the “diverse” and “mixed” pictures and videos that you see have been formulated. They’ve selected an “elite” group of students that they feel should represent them (or pretty much do their lying for them). I can’t wait to see the documentary because I think it will shed a speck of light on the larger issue that is integration at Little Rock Central High.
Bill Said:
That’s interesting.
Thank you for your personal input on this situation at hand.
My POV is this:
Caucasians don’t like Black People
Caucasians simply tolerate Black People….
It’s amazing isn’t it.
We’ve spent the past 50 years trying to integrate with THEM
and
We spent the past 50 years trying to assimilate (trying to be like…) THEM.
only
To find out that THEY don’t want to integrate with US.
I
I agree with ms t
I love my people but I think we need to be our own.
Now that I have HBO I’m going to watch
@45 Bill, you make a good point. You never see white people trying to push themselves on us for acceptance. I think alot of people need to pay attention to that.
First it is sad that racism and civil injustices still exist. It is interesting to see what the outcome of the school that landmarked intergrated education. What’s interesting to me is not the idea of intergration but the fact that when ever blacks tried to have their own, whites came to destroy it. I have some literature that I wish I had on had to reference about whites burning down an entire town of blacks because they were striving on their own without whites. They had their own financial institutions as well. So regardless to who wants intergration. The fight has always been for equal opportunity and civil equality. Whites are control freaks. They want to over power and control and take advantage of everything. As if they were superior to any one else.
They (whites) however would rather we intergrat than have our own so they can control what we get. How much money, education, and power. And because we can’t see and can’t unite (most times) we allow them to continue to control.
@ # 33, i had a feeling this documentary was too good to be true. They look like like they adding some salt & pepper to that ish, & yeah, ur right, wat state doesn’t have a run down neighbourhood like the one they r showing? This pple r dumbasses
@Sade
What’s good sis? I’m not going to really comment on this until I see the documentary and I thank the sister that posted this because I wasn’t aware that this program was being shown.
@Sweetie
Sis, you had the time to mention my name and tell me what I’m not, but like the average simple negro, you have no real opinion of your own. I could go to a toddler and get a perspective of, “That’s so sad…”. What’s really sad is black people’s inability to think.
@48
Sis, I believe that you’re talking about Black Wall Street: the race riots in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the subsequent government sponsored destruction of the affluent black community there. That also proves that the civil rights integrationist movement was government sponsored because real empowerment is community based, not dependent on seeking the love of your oppressor. Caucasians are double-minded. They don’t want blacks around them, but they also do not want us to be self-sufficient.
I’m not suprised but I am happy that they will be premiering MY Alma Mater on HBO tonight. Go TIGERS!!! It is a nice change up from the Banging in Little Rock special. Unfortunately I won’t be able to view it because we don’t have HBO in our apartments on campus….tear tear.
How ironic that 50 yrs later we have Jena 6 happening. I will be watching HBO 2nite.
#51…I liked Bangin In Little Rock! LOL..showed me what was up in other areas.
Little Rock 9..then Jena 6…numbers r decreasing, but the shyt is still alive and kickin.
US is a melting pot…deal with it…we deal with some grimy shyt, but it could be worse in another country, so I make it work where I am.
Thanks Judah…It was the Black Wallstreet in Tulsa. It was where several thousand people were murdered….they actually dropped bombs or something. So you know that was some government related attack. And they have been trying to cover it up like they do all their crimes. You have to have some serious hate and sickness in your heart to destroy a place because the black people there were thriving.
So many of you on here are so DAMN ignorant I can’t believe it!
Stupid Argument #1. Blacks need to just leave white people alone and stop trying to push themselves where they aren’t wanted..
In case you missed it, that was the same argument used to try to stop the passage of civil rights. The arguments went like this: Let’s not let blacks work here since this is OUR country, Dont’ hire blacks because our employees won’t like them and they’ll cause problems, Blacks shouldn’t be allowed to move in certain parts of OUR country or into our neighborhood. It’s our right to keep our lives and the nation’s resources separate from blacks. Blacks should stop forcing themselves on us… These same ignorant rationalizations go along with the whole idea of blacks are “invading” the resources that belong to whites. The fact that some of you are repeating this mess is what is probably the saddest part about it.
Stupid Argument #2 – Umm, for whoever completely just made up the statistics about the low high school graduation of blacks…Just so you know, graduation rates are at an all-time high (80% vs. 89%,respectively) (See: http://www.census.gov/Pre...ves/education/001863.html)
Stupid Comment #3: Integration isn’t all that
Ok, yeah tell that to any person who expects to want to create a business or corporation and have clients outside of the mere 12% of the U.S. population that is Black. The world doesn’t revolve around black people or white people. The earlier this country realizes how much of an asset diversity is, the quicker we can start to fix the blaring shortcomings in the educational system…
Stupid Comment #4: “We need to be our own”
Yeah let’s focus on creating a world in which only black people live….Hey, let’s just go back to Africa too since that’s where most black people live. Let’s just give up on the entire other 88% of the U.S. population and be insular and ignorant like white people. Forget about the fact that the work of our ancestors built this country.
DON’T GET ME WRONG – I’m all for inspiring black children and supporting black businesses, but the moment we talk about isolating ourselves and allowing whites to shut us out of what is not legitimately theirs to arbitrate is the moment we cut ourselves off from the good that can come out of having access to the valuable resources that they are hoarding….
Wow. I just finished watching it and its sad that things are still segregated. The lack of achievement in the African-Americans at the school was dishearting. It shouldn’t matter whether or not you got to a majority white school (unless they have some racist bs going on there) or a black charter school. IF YOU WANT TO DO BETTER YOU GONG TO DO BETTER!!!!! Thank You Little Rock Nine!!!!
P.S. : The people who attacked Black Wallstreet in Tulsa are disgusting, that kind of hatred is beoynd reason and those involved will be duly punished. Anytime we’re too successful some sad racist people will try to bring us down. But we have to make sure the destruction of a Black Wallstreet never happens again.
This really opened my eyes. All of those students need to take advantage of the academics. I wanna find out more aabout that girl Angelica
@ Bill
If it weren’t for whte abolishionist WE would still be in slavery.
SOME OF THESE COMMENTS LET ME SEE WHY WE ARE STILL BEHIND AS A RACE!!! YOU PEOPLE SHOW NO RESPECT FOR THE PEOPLE WHO SACRIFICED THEIR FAMILIES AND LIVES SO THAT WE ARE ABLE TO BE IN THE POSITIONS WE ARE IN TODAY. I REALLY HATE THAT Y’ALL THINK SOMEONE SHOULD GIVE US SOMETHING. THIS DOCUMENTARY SHOULD NOT ONLY OPEN YOUR EYES TO ARKANSAS, BUT TO WHATS GOING ON IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITY. THE THINGS GOING ON HERE IS NOT AN ISOLATED EVENT, IT HAPPENED AND IS HAPPENING EVERYWHERE. PEOPLE AND SCHOOLS ACROSS THE US HAD TO GO THROUGH THE THINGS THE LITTLE ROCK 9 DID, WITH PROBABLY FAR WORSE RESULTS. I’M NOT A HISTORY BUFF, BUT I KNOW ENOUGH TO WHERE EVERYDAY I THANK THE LORD FOR THE ONES WHO SAW MY LIFE AND FUTURE IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO DIE FOR IT. I’M SURE A LOT OF YOU ARE YOUNG, BUT YOUNG OR OLD I STRESS THAT YOU GRAB A BOOK AND LEARN ABOUT YOUR HISTORY AND READ THE STORES OF THOSE PEOPLE YOU FOUGHT FOR YOUR FREEDOM.
INTEGRATION WAS NOT ABOUT BE LIKE WHITE PEOPLE IT WAS ABOUT NOT BEING TREATED LIKE YOUR WORTH LESS THAN A DOG. IT WAS ABOUT HAVING THE SAME ADVANTAGES AS OTHERS. WE TAKE FOR GRANTED THE THINGS WE ARE ABLE TO DO THESE DAYS. IT WASN’T THAT LONG AGO WE COULDN’T WALK THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR OF A RESTAURANT. IT WASN’T THAT LONG AGO WE COULDN’T USE THE SAME RESTROOM AS WHITES. IT WASN’T THAT LONG AGO WE COULDN’T SIT ON THE FRONT OF THE BUS. IT WASN’T THAT LONG AGO WE WEREN’T EVEN ALLOWED TO HAVE BOOKS. INTEGRATION WASN’T ABOUT WHITE PEOPLE ACCEPTING US INTO THEIR CULTURE, BUT THEM LEARNING ABOUT OURS AND SEEING US AS PEOPLE. IT WASN’T LONG AGO WE WERE SEEN AS NOTHING PUT CATTLE.
BOTTOM LINE THE WHITE MAN HASN’T LET US DO NOTHING, PEOPLE FOUGHT AND DIED FOR OUR FREEDOM AND WE SIT AROUND LIKE THINGS SHOULD BE HANDED TO US. THIS SITTING AROUND IS THE SAME REASON WHY WE ARE STILL DEALING WITH THE SAME ISSUES WE WERE 50 YEARS AGO!
59 just brought tears to my eyes. How can anyone sit there and question the past? What’s with all this should’ve, could’ve, would’ve? Hell, be thankful that someone had the balls to stand up and fight for what we have today. It literally makes me sick to my stomach to think of all the struggles that my grandparents went through only to have today’s generation second guess it. Have you all forgotten about the Jim Crow laws; especially the one that prevented more than 3 black people from congregating in any given location? Had someone not fought to stop that kind of shit you wouldn’t have your black colleges. You wouldn’t have your black entertainers. You wouldn’t have your Halle Berry’s, or your Mariah’s or your Shemar Moore’s, because you wouldn’t have interracial relationships. The list goes on and on. And it seems like, most importantly, and I say this with every ounce of sarcasm in my body, you wouldn’t have your precious BET!
And as long as people continue to be ignorant, ungrateful, and most of all, lazy, forever on the porch we’ll stay!
And please, stop with the generalization that all white people are the same. There are so many good people out there that see past color, and it’s not fair to lump them all into one category. It’s just as bad as when close minded white people think that all blacks are lazy and stupid.