Part III Assignment_ Separate and Unequal

 

Part III Assignment_ Separate and Unequal

Part III of this story doesn’t just tell the story of the landmark 1954 ruling; it meticulously charts the painful, violent, and ongoing resistance to it. We saw the incredible courage of the Little Rock Nine, but we also saw the ugly, raw hatred they faced. We learned that the battle wasn’t just in the South, as the documentary shifted to the 1970s and showed the explosive riots in Boston over busing. This wasn’t a historical problem; it was a human one, rooted in a deep-seated reluctance to share power and privilege.

But what truly reshaped my understanding were the stories we explored beyond the documentary itself. Our group’s collaborative project focused on connecting the historical dots to the present day. We dove into the 2014 FRONTLINE documentary Separate and Unequal, which felt like a direct, sobering sequel to Part III. The film follows the effort in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where—decades after a federal court finally forced the school district to desegregate—a group of mostly white, middle-class citizens launched a movement to break away and form their own city, St. George, with its own school district.

Watching this felt like watching the arguments from the 1950s and 70s dressed up in modern language. Proponents talked about “local control” and “better schools for our kids,” but the effect was the same: to create a predominantly white, wealthier district that would pull resources and tax revenue away from the more diverse, poorer schools. It was segregation by a legal and political workaround to the moral imperative of Brown. And just this past April, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that St. George can become a city. 

To represent this, our group created a visual timeline for our collaborative project. On one side, we had the key events from Part III: Brown v. Board in 1954, Little Rock in 1957. On the other side, we mapped the modern events: the founding of the St. George movement in 2013, the FRONTLINE documentary in 2014, and the final court ruling in 2024. In the middle, we placed a powerful quote from educator Kandice Sumner, who reframes the “achievement gap” as an “opportunity gap.” Her words bridged the decades, making it clear that the outcome of this separation—then and now—is a system designed to provide a superior education to some and an inferior one to others.

This project forced our group to have difficult but necessary conversations. We discussed how the mechanisms of segregation have evolved from police officers blocking school doors to complex issues of municipal financing and district boundaries. We talked about the coded language used to defend these modern separations. Most importantly, we grappled with the uncomfortable truth that the struggle for educational equality is not a closed history unit. It is a live, ongoing battle.

Part III of School is not a story of a problem solved. It’s the story of a battle in a war that we are still fighting. It left me feeling less like a student of history and more like a citizen who needs to pay attention. The past isn't past; it’s playing out in school board meetings and courtrooms today, and understanding this history is the first step toward finally, truly, changing it.