Final Project

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Feb 20, 2024

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Final Project Southern New Hampshire University HIS 200: Applied History Instructor Aubrey Underwood, Eidson June 25, 2023 In 1974, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts court ordered the Boston Public Schools to desegregate the city’s schools. 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 enforce the desegregation policy. The desegregation plan changed Boston politics and caused demographic shifts in the population. Racial segregation was considered an unofficial policy in the city and was reinforced by the Boston School Committee’s districting decisions. Schools in African American districts were underfunded, underequipped, and understaffed. They only received about two thirds of the amount of funding received by schools in white neighborhoods. In a letter from the Massachusetts Black Caucus of the Massachusetts House of Representatives to Judge W. Arthur Garrity, they shared concern on the issue of violence in South Boston. How black citizens were under attack and could not commute safely to and from work or school without being harassed by groups of white citizens while the city officials did nothing to deter the behavior. The Massachusetts Black Caucus requested National Guard protection for the safety of black students attending schools in white communities, citations for those exciting riots or acts of violence around schools, and to name Boston City Council members as defendants in the Morgan vs Hennigan suit.

The implementation of the bus desegregation should have been done gradually to give the effected individuals an adjustment period. The argument from the black community was that most of the predominantly black schools, like the Sherwin School, were overcrowded, and the buildings needed repairs. Across Boston’s public schools, spending per pupil averaged $340 for white students compared to only $240 for black students. Moving the kids around did not solve the issues in the schools located in black communities. There were multiple stories about busing for school desegregation. The media attention and the strong feelings towards the new policy drew politicians from across party and regional lines. These politicians cemented “busing” as the common-sense way to describe, debate, and oppose school desegregation. “Joseph Lee made the BSC’s fixation on “busing” clear: “White children do not want to be transported into schools with a large proportion of backward pupils from unprospering Negro families who will slow down their education. White children do not want large numbers of backward pupils from unprospering Negro families shipped into their present mainly white schools either.” (Delmont, 2016). The stigma was placed on African American students in part because of the conditions of the schools and the lack of resources. Changing the way funds were distributed would have produced a greater outcome for all parties involved. In 1965, black parents led by Ellen Jackson organized a large-scale test of the open enrollment policy called Operation Exodus, to transport black students from Roxbury and North Dorchester to schools outside their neighborhoods with open seats and more resources. While it involved fewer than one thousand of the twenty thousand black students in Boston, Operation Exodus demonstrated the determination of black parents and students to secure quality education (Delmont, 2016). The after math of bus desegregation was not as expected. On September 12, 1974, the first day of school, many students stayed home, some in protest, some for safety. Only 13

students from South Boston High School appeared in Roxbury, and only 100 out of the 1300 students from Roxbury assigned to South Boston High School showed up (Boston research center). When the black students did arrive they were met with violent protesting. The Massachusetts State Police and the Massachusetts National Guard had to be called in to control the area. Eight five parents of Boston public middle and high school students were interviewed to share their views on desegregation. The group included 38 black, 24 white and 23 Hispanic. The black parents who said desegregation had overall negative effects (36%) was larger than the group who said effects were generally positive (24%). The remaining stated don’t know or mixed. This historical event is important to me personally because desegregation affects me directly being an African American woman that attended a predominantly white private high school because my parents believed I would get a better education and be exposed to more than what was in my neighborhood. The research on this topic and adjustments to my thesis statement have allowed me to view the situation differently. My personal experience going to a predominately white school was not unfavorable, but it was a different time than the Boston busing crisis. I also never rode a bus and feel it would be dreadful under the strenuous conditions those students endured. It did change my view of certain instances during school. If a historian were to continue the research of my thesis statement, I would advise that they gather information from modern day students that are in school systems where they are the minority to compare how the acceptance of desegregation has changed over time. They could also investigate my primary and secondary sources along with their own.

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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 . Desegregation in the Boston Public Schools: Interviews with parents. (n.d.). https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/downloads/neu:m039ts60h? datastream_id=content Matthew F. Delmont. (2016). Why Busing Failed : Race, Media, and the National Resistance to School Desegregation . University of California Press. “Letter from the Massachusetts Black Caucus to Judge W. Arthur Garrity, Jr.,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/5900ec2af45fabf8fc011c989e4e46a6 .

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