How integrated is Little Rock 50 years after Eisenhower sent in the Screaming Eagles?

October 17, 2007 12:57 PM

What is the current racial composition of Little Rock Central High School?

I'm most interested in public records and scholarly studies of the degree of integration and de facto segregation in Little Rock, but I'd also be interested in any anecdotal reports.

posted by anotherpanacea to society & culture (6 comments total)

This article from last month on the 50th anniversary of Central High's integration doesn't have the specific breakdown for the high school alone, but it does say that the school district as a whole is 70% black.
posted by scody at 1:16 PM on October 17, 2007

I saw a documentary on HBO last week chronicling students lives a Little Rock Central today and it said the breakdown was something like 60/40 black or 70/30 black. I believe the doucmentary was called "Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later" or something to that effect.
posted by caflores22 at 1:26 PM on October 17, 2007

Does this help?
posted by wile e at 2:04 PM on October 17, 2007

Here's the current data. Demographic data starts on page 66.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 2:27 PM on October 17, 2007

Both my wife and I graduated from LRCHS in 1996. I don't have my yearbook handy, but I would guess about 60-40 black is about right. The demographics by zip aren't going to be a good proxy; Central is a large high school (probably 1500-2000 students) which draws from a large area. For instance, I lived in lily-white 72120 and my wife lived in 72205.

What's more interesting about Central is the academic makeup of the school. I think I remember an article briefly talking about this during the anniversary. Central is two schools coexisting in the same building. One is an urban high school in the mid-south, comprised of students from low-income, often single parent households. The other is an academic powerhouse, consistently producing
more AP scholars, National Merit Semifinalists and acceptances to top 25 colleges than any other high school in the state, including private schools.

And yeah, these two cohorts of students break down among largely racial lines, but not exclusively. So the school is technically integrated, and there is less racial tension there than in your average Arkansas high school. But the school has self selected itself into two entities which don't always see eye to eye for reasons that aren't strictly based on race.

I'd be happy to talk about this more if you have further questions.
posted by mbd1mbd1 at 5:44 PM on October 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

I crunched the numbers from ClaudiaCenter's link, and it looks like LRCH is 56% black and 42% white. The testing indicates some achievement gaps, including a small % of mostly white kids doing extremely well.

Anybody have any statistics on the tracking problem? The NCA report makes it look like a small group of rich and mostly white kids are segregated into a 'gifted and talented' program, but that the rest of the school is pretty evenly multiracial. Is there a larger segregation problem with the AP program, remedial classes, and the like?
posted by anotherpanacea at 2:07 PM on October 22, 2007