A 10-minute documentary about the history of court-ordered desegregation and its reversal in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools -- specifically at West Charlotte High -- went online today as part of the Retro Report, a new documentary news group created to give historic context to issues in the news.
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| Griffin |
"I said, 'I'll just step aside and I won't try to stop you and we'll see what happens,' " says Griffin, who is now an executive with McGraw-Hill Education.
What happened, in terms of racial composition, was that West Charlotte went from being viewed as a national model for desegregation -- "a darling of the national media," as the report puts it -- to reverting to its origins as a black high school. Although no one is assigned by race now, last year 87 percent of West Charlotte students were black and 2 percent were white (2013-14 numbers aren't in yet).
Retro Report was created with a grant from former television editor Christopher Buck; read more about the nonprofit group that emerged here. "Retro Report is there to pick up the story after everyone has moved on, connecting the dots from yesterday to today, correcting the record and providing a permanent living library where viewers can gain new insight into the events that shaped their lives," the introduction says.
The New York Times features Retro Report on its online "Booming" section, designed to appeal to those of us born between 1946 and 1964.
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| Couple featured in Booming (remember this look?) |
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