Segregation is Back

1965: After years of struggle alongside Martin Luther King, African Americans obtained the right to vote. This was a turning point in history that changed the face of the United States. For the first time, public schools were obliged by law to accept black children. In 2008, the election of Barack Obama as the first black president looked like the perfect demonstration of successful racial integration. But today, segregation is returning to America…

Selma in Alabama is emblematic of this new social reality. A key center of the civil rights movement, the city is once again divided, and its two main high-schools illustrate this separation. On one side is Selma High School, a public establishment with around 1,000 students, all black. On the other is the John T. Morgan Academy, a private establishment which bears the name of one of the founders of the Ku Klux Klan, and which has 500 students, all white.

Segregation is Back takes us to the heart of this divided America, following the daily lives of high-school kids from both communities. At their side, we discover their dashed hopes, their fears, and the feeling of abandonment which permeates Selma, a city that symbolizes an America slipping back towards the worst of its racist past.