Locke High School: Promises to Keep

This FOX 11 News Special investigates the Locke Transformation Project, tracing Locke's history up to its present day circumstance.  This piece was filmed in Fall 2008- months after Locke High School was re-opened as a Green Dot Public School.

FOX 11 News Los Angeles
November 22, 2008
Tony McEwing

Not that long ago Locke High School in Watts wasn't much of a school. It had become a drop-out factory, but it wasn't supposed to be that way. Locke was supposed to be a place marching forward from the upheaval of the 60s.

In the aftermath of the Watts Riots, Alain Leroy Locke High School was born, named after the father of the Harlem Renaissance. This community finally had its very own high school.... it was 1967.... A year filled with promise. Fast forward four decades, last spring and you find race riots, abysmal test scores and pure anarchy at Locke High.

In this FOX 11 Special, Tony McEwing takes a look at a charter school program called Green Dot Public Schools, which is revamping Locke High School from the bottom up.

Watch the video reports here: