terms:
de jure
de fact

Brief timeline
14th Amendment passed (1868)
Constitutional amendment forbids any state from depriving citizens of their rights and privileges and defines citizenship

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Supreme Court rules that separate but equal facilities for different races is legal.

Brown V. Board of Education (1954)
Supreme Court reverses Plessy by stating that separate schools are by nature unequal. Schools are ordered to desegregate "with all deliberate speed"

September 4, 1957 The nine black students attempt to enter Central High in Little Rock Arkansas but are turned away by the National Guard.

24th Amendment Civil Rights Act (1964)
Poll tax (which had been used to prevent blacks from voting) outlawed. Overcoming Senate filibuster, Congress passes law forbidding racial discrimination in many areas of life, including hotels, voting, employment, and schools

The Fair Housing Act is enacted by Congress (1968)  prohibiting discrimination in the sale and rental of housing.

1962, James Meredith enrolls at the University of Mississippi 5000 federal troops are sent by Pres. Kennedy to  allow Meredith to register for classes. Riots result in 2 deaths and hundreds of injuries

Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971)
The Supreme Court upholds the use of busing as a means of bringing about desegregation of public schools.

Milliken v. Bradley (1974)
U.S. Supreme Court rules in  against allowing a desegregation plan that crossed school district lines from Detroit into its suburbs.

The Chicago Sun-Times (March 18, 2001) reported: "Chicago remains one of the nation's most racially, segregated cities. Despite fair housing laws and civil rights marches, African-Americans live in their neighborhoods and whites in theirs. More than four out of 10 Chicagoans live on blocks that are more than 90 percent of one race. A decade ago, it was five out of 10. Still, nearly 1.3 million people - most black - live in one-race areas of the city."
2001 Schools: Peoria's Richwoods High School - nearly 73 percent white and Asian with 11.1 percent low income - with Manual High School - 75.9 percent black and Latino and 78.8 percent low income.

Sources/for additional information:

Detroit's Reform Timeline: At the Crossroads Again

Civil Rights Key figures/timeline

History of Little Rock Public Schools Desegregation
 

Questions:

1) What is the 'state' 'federal' conflict that the film illustrates? Can you think of any contemporary cultural and educational issues that present a conflict between state/federal?

2) How did the nation see "the face of white resistance" in Little Rock?  Imagine yourself a white citizen in Little Rock in 1957. Where would you be?