Boston Busing Research Paper

In 1974, Judge Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr. of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts ruled that the schools were unconstitutionally segregated (Weinbaum). He ordered Boston to desegregate in all public schools by forced busing. This new plan forced students from white neighborhoods to go to school in black neighborhoods, and forced students black neighborhoods to go to school in predominantly white neighborhoods to balance the racial diversity. However, this ruling was highly unpopular among the White Americans who were still in favor of segregation. A series of protests began to follow soon after the desegregation orders, but the most significant protest would be captured in a series of snapshots.

In 1951 schools were separated by skin color, or segregated. The Brown v. Board of Education trial was brought to court because a third-grader, Linda Brown, was not allowed to attend the elementary school that was closest to her house. She wa required to take the bus to school across town instead. In the trial the point that “Education for Negroes is almost nonexistent(13).” This is an example of how there were old problems in the Fourteenth Amendment that needed to be changed. Another issue that was brought up in the trial was that, “Segregation… has a tendency to retard the educational and mental development of negro children…(19).” Without the proper education at segregated

In Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg [County, North Carolina] Board of Education of 1971, the Supreme Court approved "administratively awkward, inconvenient, and even bizarre" methods to achieve integration; one of the measures included busing. In 1972, Morgan v. Hennigan was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Massachusetts District, charging that Boston public schools were unconstitutionally segregated. Prosecuting attorney Nick Flannery worked to prove Boston's segregation was not de facto (actually existing though not legally or officially established), but instead de jure (according to law), similar to Southern school districts. On 21 June 1974, Judge W. Arthur Garrity "found that the [Boston] School Committee had used covert techniques to segregate the system, and had done so with ‘segregative intent.'" A two-phase plan was called for; in Phase I, students would be bused from Roxbury, a predominantly black area, to South Boston, a neighborhood regarded as "the stronghold of opposition to desegregation." The integration started in September 1974, and was mostly quiet, except for some conflicts at both South Boston's high school and Roxbury's high school, a few of which required Governor Frank Sargent to call out the National Guard. Later in the school year, many white families planned a major boycott of the public schools. An anonymous tip was sent out saying

The victory that led to school desegregation in 1954 came with its gimmicks. Although everyone saw the best in the enforcement of the law, only some saw its flaws. Just because blacks were

The U.S is known for its liberty and equality. However, the Supreme Court once had to decide on the rights for African Americans. Since the abolishment of slavery, one court case before the Supreme Court sided against the African American plaintiff fighting for equal rights. In this case the plaintiff, Homer Plessy was arguing his right to ride in a "white only" train car. Unfortunately, he lost his case in Plessy vs Ferguson. Decades later, another plaintiff, Oliver Brown, also took a case before the Supreme Court. Conversely, in this case, the Supreme Court sided with the plaintiff in Brown vs Board of Education. This decision began the integration of schools. Despite the fact that these two cases took place almost 60 years apart, they both dealt with a similar issue.

The Brown vs Board of Education was a remarkable set of five cases that paved the way for desegregation in schools and eventually resulting in the Civil Rights Act being passed. These cases however weren’t the only catalysts that forced the Supreme Court to question the wording of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and neither were they the only pivotal cases that changed the way America as a whole looked at the black community and how to interact with them.

The book “Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy” by James T. Patterson is about the struggles leading up to the fight for the desegregations of public schools and the outcomes. The struggles accelerated to civil rights movement in the 1950s. Patterson describes in details about the difficult road to the Supreme Court, the outcome of the Supreme Court decision, the resistance by whites people, especially in the Deep South and the struggles to implement the challenging transition. Discriminatory practices were apparent in the United States but it was a lot worse in the Southern States. The Jim Crow Law mandated the segregation of public schools, public places, public transportations, restrooms, restaurants,

“In many ways the drive to appoint sols and put black and white children together was the most radical part of the civil rights movement. (civilrights.org)”. “All the Topeka elementary schools are to neighborhood attendance centers in January 1956, although existing students were allowed to continue attending their prior assigned schools at their option the struggle for integrated schools has gone through many faces since the 1954 decision. (Wikipedia.com)”. It sparked hope and outrage depending on people’s reactions. After the Supreme Court decision in 1954 was not moving smoothly they decided to add a 1955 court decision that called for desegration with deliberate speed. Browns impact has been enormous on the civil rights movement from the years to come this case sparked a generous amount of change that would give equal rights to children. Although the holding of the decision was focused on terminating segregation in schools. It also over time supported racial discrimination in almost every other area of public life. (2008 pg.17). Sparked by brown the civil rights movement manifested quickly spreading all over and

The kids had it so bad, the only reason the kids were able to go to school was because Brown .vs. Bored of Education case; segregated schools were ruled unconstitutional.

Now known as one of the best Supreme Court cases of the 20th for equality for African Americans. In this case the problem was that segregation between the schools was not equal and that went against the equality protection clause purposed by the 14th Admendment.As the case countinued they began to look back at previous cases like Plessy v. Ferguson which stated that segregated facilities are constitutional if there are equal which the schools were not. Afterwards the Court unanimously decided that it was not constitutional and needs to be fixed.

Education was one of things that every parent wanted for their children regardless of whatever situation they were in. Public schools were segregated. In 1954 there was a lawsuit that ended legal segregation in public schools known as Brown V. Board of Education. In the fall of 1950, the NAACP sued on behalf of third-grader Linda Brown of Topeka, Kansas (Gates, 2013, p.323). Brown’s parents lived near a white school and wanted their daughter to attend that school because it was closer to their home than any other school that was around them. Thurgood Marshall was one of the lawyers for the NAACP during the time and argued that segregation condemns children, thinking that they lower than the whites that the Court had supposedly threw out in the Plessy case. The Court also heard from other families that were going through the same situation as Brown. May 17th, 1954, the Court ruled in favor of the black students. This decision allowed blacks to attend any public school that they

This inequality and unnecessary act called racism within many school systems can be dated back to 1896 to the Plessy V. Ferguson case which resulted in “separate facilities for education” and an “equal education” (Campbell). This case is what provided us with the term “separate but equal”, this meant that white and black children had to attend separate schools but would supposedly get an equal education. Another case addressing racism in education is the Cumming V. Richmond case in 1899. This case involved three black families who petitioned the court to allow their children to finish their high school education at a white high school, due to the closing of the local black high school which would integrate African Americans and whites under one facility (Campbell). Racial segregation and its unfairness even continued into the 1950’s with the Sweatt V. Painter case involving an African American, Homas Sweatt, who was being denied access to the University of Texas Law School because he was black (Campbell). All of this unfair treatment of separate but equal education continued until 1954 when one of the most popular and familiar cases to all of us occurred, “Brown V. Board of Education”. In this case a young girl from Kansas had to walk 21 blocks to the closet black only school when a

Marshall persuasive arguments in this matter, in 1954, the court, which was presiding Chief Justice Earl Warren who practices in California, ruled in favor of the Browns v. Board of Education, in Kansas. The judge believed that the court should be more involved in playing a role in the justice of the society, so he ruled that public school segregating was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment, and he argue that “Separate but equal has not place,” and he made sure that doing away with segregation took place. But, the Federal district courts overturn his decision in May of 1955, and they proceeded with the integration of the schools. So here is an example of a part of the government trying to do what is right for all people, but another part of government saying they agree that segregating is not right, but and have to end, but not right now during that time period, or as they put it “reasonable time.” In their time they were talking about on or two hundred years, which lead 101 congressmen, in 1956 signing what they called a rejection of Browns decision, a “Southern Manifesto.” So, the white people were angry and they formed a massive resistance to desegregation, to stop schools from integrating that lead to some violence.

A while back, my school took the grade nines on a fascinating trip to the city of Edmonton. The bus ride took about three hours. The whole purpose of this trip was for us to see the parliament building. We got to go there in coach buses and we took a couple of stops on the way. The trip was very educational and helped me better understand the Canadian government.

The most significant landmark desegregation case that catalyzed special education reform in the United States was Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). In the summer of 1950, Oliver Brown and other African-American parents attempted to enroll their children in a “white elementary school” in Kansas. However, the parents were informed that their children must enroll in an African-American school. The parents being enraged decided to file suit against the Topeka Board of Education. Brown and other parents then sought the NAAP (National Advancement of Colored People). However, the state court of Kansas denied Brown and the NAAP due to the stipulations of the Plessy V. Ferguson doctrine which allowed separate but equal schools. The NAAP decided to appeal the case to the United States Supreme Court. Interestingly, during this time court cases in other states similar to the Brown case were being contested. The states that commenced these cases were Delaware, South Carolina, and Virginia. These states in addition to Kansas of the Brown case