ABSTRACT
Racism persists, and it has not only become more complex as the population has become more diverse, it has also changed in a fundamental way since the Little Rock crisis The crisis in Little Rock is part of that grand narrative of expanding opportunity and equality, the progressively perfected inclusiveness of America. Significant majorities of African Americans perceive racial discrimination to be a constant and oppressive fact of their daily lives. Significant racial discrimination does exist in housing, jobs, education, banking, the criminal system, and the ordinary encounters of daily life. The promise of American life has always involved equal opportunity; one of the duties of American life has always been the obligation for self-improvement. Perhaps somewhere in the examination of the Little Rock experience it identifies the next step that the society must take toward the full realization of America's promise.
