Judge frees Little Rock schools from federal supervision

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Little Rock's school district has been freed from federal supervision, a half-century after a defiant governor's refusal to allow nine black students into an all-white Central High sparked one of the biggest crises of the civil rights era.

U.S. District Judge William R. Wilson Jr. issued a ruling Friday that found that the district was substantially complying with a 1998 desegregation plan worked out in the 27,000-student district.

Little Rock, which now has a black-majority school board, was satisfactorily evaluating its academic programs in the effort to improve achievement on blacks, the ruling found.

In 1957, President Eisenhower dispatched the 101st Airborne to enforce a U.S. Supreme Court order striking down segregation after Gov. Orval Faubus tried to prevent black students from enrolling at Central High.

Superintendent Roy Brooks was careful to note that Wilson's decision did not mean an end to progress among the district's students, 70 percent of whom are black.

Here's some info on the Eisenhower directive:

[url=http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/dl/LittleRock/littlerockdocuments.html]“Little Rock School Integration Crisis ”
[/url]