Brian Gilmore '92 published an editorial in The Californian celebrating the 55th anniversary of the Little Rock Nine, a group of nine African-American children who fought to integrate all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. in 1957.
Gilmore writes, "In the years to follow, many other Americans, from all races and backgrounds, would fight racism in America and undo the doctrine of "separate but equal."
Unfortunately, our schools today are increasingly being resegregated. According to a recent report by UCLA’s Civil Rights Project, "43 percent of Latinos and 38 percent of blacks attend intensely segregated schools (those with only 0-10 percent of white students) across the nation.”
It added: "Fully 15 percent of black students and 14 percent of Latino students attend ‘apartheid schools’ across the nation, where whites make up 0 to 1 percent of the enrollment.”
So even as we celebrate the 55th anniversary of the Little Rock Nine, we must recommit ourselves to tackling the issue of segregation.
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