Little Rock Central High: 50 Years Later Analysis

Leaving last week’s class, my mind was darting in all sorts of directions. While the “Eyes on the Prize” excerpt gave me a concrete understanding of the historic events of the desegregation of Little Rock High School, “Little Rock Central High: 50 Years Later” brought up all sorts of observations and questions on race in America that I hadn’t necessarily thought to address before. I think these two films were particularly interesting to view back to back because of their difference in style, content, and execution. I have viewed many of the “Eyes on The Prize” segments in past classes and this segment, “Fighting Back”, continues to stand out to me. Through the use of first person interviews and real footage, the piece gave me, what felt like, a clear look

The teacher asks whether or not black students still care about racial justice and the boy responds by saying, “In the fifties we still had something to prove so we had a reason to fight”. The teacher asks, “you don’t think black students are competing now?”. His response: “No.” Maybe the filmmakers took this exchange out of context or maybe the student was trying to say something else, but it saddened me to think that there might be children who already feel a sense of defeat. The recent media campaigns surrounding police violence against black individuals, something that has been going on for decades just without media coverage, is showing the public that there is far more that needs to be done in order to make America equal for all races. But even with this new awareness, there are still black and white students who think that the fight is over. That it won’t get better than it already has so why keep trying. It makes me really question how we can break this cycle. I wonder if we could get parents to start teaching their children tolerance, acceptance and equality from birth, how different the world would look