Little Rock Granted "Unitary Status"

Fifty years after President Eisenhower sent National Guard troops to enforce a federal desegregation order in Little Rock Arkansas, the local school district is granted unitary status. In such cases the court recognizes school district efforts to provide equal educational opportunity and assumes that any residual inequalities are not the result of school board action. See Steve Barnes' article from the New York Times. Little Rock can now operate as the district sees fit, answerable only to its constituents and voters - not the courts.