Educational Issues & Controversies

Sub-Topics
Act 76 of 1983
aka: Teacher Testing Law
Act 76 of 1983 was a law passed by the Arkansas General Assembly ma...
Amendment 33
Amendment 33 was the first of three constitutional amendments ratified by voters in the decade after the begin...
Arkansas Scholarship Lottery
The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery is a system of games of chance, implemented to generate revenue to fund the s...
Daisy Lee Gatson Bates (1914?–1999)
Daisy Lee Gatson Bates was a mentor to the Little Rock Nine, the African American students who integrated Cent...
Melba Pattillo Beals (1941–)
Melba Pattillo Beals made history as a member of the Little Rock Nine, the nine African American students invo...
Desegregation of Bentonville Schools
Bentonville (Benton County) was one of the earliest school districts in Arkansas to admit African American stu...
Vivion Mercer Lenon Brewer (1900–1991)
Vivion Mercer Lenon Brewer is best known for helping to found the Women’s Emergency Committee to Open Our Sc...
Burrow v. Pocahontas School District
Arkansas has struggled for much of its history to fund the education of its children—particularly during the...
Capital Citizens' Council (CCC)
The Capital Citizens’ Council (CCC) was one of many similar organizations established throughout the South t...
Desegregation of Central High School
aka: Crisis at Central High
aka: Little Rock Desegregation Crisis
In its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision,...
Desegregation of Charleston Schools
Much has been written about the Little Rock School District desegregation in 1957. However, the Charleston Pub...
Charter Schools
Charter schools are public schools that operate on a contract, or charter, which allows them increased operati...
Committee to Retain Our Segregated Schools (CROSS)
Formed in 1959 to bolster the segregationist cause in the aftermath of the desegregation of Central High Schoo...
Desegregation of Des Arc Schools
The 1966 desegregation of schools at Des Arc (Prairie County) was accomplished under the leadership of Arkansa...
Earle Race Riot of 1970
The Earle Race Riot of 1970 broke out in the late evening of September 10 and continued into the early hours o...
Elizabeth Ann Eckford (1941–)
Elizabeth Ann Eckford made history as a member of the Little Rock Nine, the nine African American students who...
Education Reform
Education reform, the process of improving public education through changes in public policy, has been slow an...
Epperson v. Arkansas
Epperson v. Arkansas, a case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, challenged the right of a state to outlaw t...
Teaching of Evolution
Few educational issues have caused as much vehement debate in Arkansas as the teaching of evolutionary theory...
Desegregation of Fayetteville Schools
Between 1954 and 1965, Fayetteville (Washington County) underwent the gradual integration of all primary and s...
Ernest Gideon Green (1941–)
Ernest Gideon Green made history as the only senior of the Little Rock Nine, the nine African-American student...
Desegregation of Hot Springs Schools
Hot Springs (Garland County), a tourist town, had one of the largest school districts in Arkansas at the time ...
Desegregation of Hoxie Schools
During the summer and autumn of 1955, proponents and opponents of school integration across America were watch...
Silas Herbert Hunt (1922–1949)
Silas Herbert Hunt was a veteran of World War II and a pioneer in the integration of higher education in Arkan...
Jim DuPree v. Alma School District No. 30
Jim DuPree et al. v. Alma School District No. 30 et al. was a lawsuit that triggered twenty-five years of liti...
Gloria Cecelia Ray Karlmark (1942–)
Gloria Cecelia Ray Karlmark made history as a member of the Little Rock Nine, the nine African-American studen...
Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee
The court case Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee examined the structure for the funding of Arkansas...
Carlotta Walls LaNier (1942–)
Carlotta Walls LaNier made history as the youngest member of the Little Rock Nine, the nine African-American s...
LEARNS Act
aka: Act 237 of 2023
The LEARNS Act (Act 237 of 2023) was the signature piece of legisla...
Little Rock Nine
The Little Rock Nine were the nine African American students involved in the desegregation of Little Rock Cent...
Lost Cause Myth of the Confederacy
The Lost Cause myth consists of a set of ideas about the history of the South that developed following the Ame...
Lost Year
“The Lost Year” refers to the 1958–59 school year in Little Rock (Pulaski County), when all the city’s...