Writing Plan Progress Check 2
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Southern New Hampshire University *
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200
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History
Date
Feb 20, 2024
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docx
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Uploaded by GrandRose11410
Writing Plan Progress Check 2
Southern New Hampshire University
HIS 200: Applied History
Instructor Aubrey Underwood, Eidson
May 21, 2023
The topic I chose is school desegregation in Boston. In 1974, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts court ordered the Boston Public Schools to desegregate the city’s schools through busing. The desegregation plan lasted for over a decade from 1974-1988. It changed Boston politics and demographic shifts in the population. The court order was placed in response to the Boston School Committee doing nothing to implement needed changes to comply with the Racial Imbalance Act that was passed by the Massachusetts General Court in 1965 that outlawed segregation in schools. Leaders decided to bus students across town to try and desegregate schools in Boston. In some ways this was an effective strategy but ultimately fell short of the goal. During this period most of the school funding had been going to white schools causing black schools to be understaffed and overcrowded. With the order in place, white
children started attending black schools and the funding amount was raised for those schools.
A secondary source I plan to use is the Desegregation Busing article in the encyclopedia of Boston. The article goes in depth into what led to the busing crisis, the violence that erupted as
a result and the aftermath of it all. It also includes primary sources of pictures from 1974-1976 depicting the struggle. Another secondary source I found is the journal Beyond Boundaries: Envisioning Metropolitan School Desegregation in Boston, Detroit, and Philadelphia, 1963-
1974. This journal is helpful because it references the desegregation laws put into place and has
detailed information on the groups that formed to protest the implementation. These groups were significant in promoting the violence of that time.
The research question I plan to explore is what acts of violence impacted the desegregation efforts in Boston schools. The outrage in desegregating the schools and bus systems caused public school enrollment decline, school attendance dropped for those that were enrolled and riots ensued. The desegregation order increased racial diversity in public schools and was opposed by both white and black citizens.
Only 13 students from South Boston High School showed up in Roxbury and only 100 out of the 1300 students from Roxbury assigned to South Boston High School showed up. When the African American students arrived in South Boston the buses were escorted by police officers and protestors threw eggs, bottles, and bricks. The Massachusetts State Police and the Massachusetts National Guard had to be called in to control the area. Throughout the year, violence continued, on and off campus. Bused children were mentally, physically, and verbally abused causing many students to suffer from stress, fear, and illness. Approximately 18,000 students were bused into other neighborhoods in the 1974-75 school year. More than 30,000 Boston Public Schools students left to attend private and parochial
schools.
References
Desegregation busing: Encyclopedia of Boston
. Desegregation Busing | Encyclopedia of Boston.
(n.d.). https://bostonresearchcenter.org/projects_files/eob/single-entry-
busing.html#:~:text=Throughout%20the%20year%2C%20violence%20flared,the
%201974%2D75%20school%20year
. Kerry Dunne, (2016) Busing & Beyond: School Desegregation in Boston. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, https://production.dp.la/primary-source-sets/busing-
beyond-school-desegregation-in-boston
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