Busing Initiative News Today

Talks about the Garisson decision of the Supreme Court that ordered desegregation in Boston and the busing crisis that followed, studying what happened and its legacy.

They marched, they protested, and they gathered detailed proof that the Boston Public Schools were racially separate and unequal. When a stubborn school committee failed to acknowledge the problem and provide remedies, parents and activists organized one-day boycotts, carpooled, and raised money for student transportation to more adequate schools. They even opened their own

Decades of activism, community organizing, and legal campaigns led by Black women set the stage for the landmark Garrity decision in 1974 that led to the forced busing and desegregation of Boston Public Schools.

Organizers of the initiative say the goal is to educate the public about the tumultuous period in Boston’s history following court-ordered busing and to examine its lasting legacy.

Architects of Boston’s desegregation plan say that, nearly 50 years later, the promised educational improvements have failed to materialize for Black and white students.

Architects of Boston’s desegregation plan say that, nearly 50 years later, the promised educational improvements have failed to materialize for Black and white students.

The history starts with a dream and becomes a nightmare, only to reawaken as a halting voice of trauma or equanimity steeped in regret. Such was the “moral arc” of Boston’s “long road to school desegregation” in the PBS “American Experience” documentary, “The Busing Battleground,” which premiered Monday night before 150 people at the Community Academy of Science and Health in

In the lead up to the 50-year anniversary of the Boston busing crisis, a group of more than three dozen community leaders are launching a new three-year initiative to remember the busing program and educate Bostonians on its legacy through conversations and exhibits. 

Dennis Lehane’s “Small Mercies” begins with a hint of dread: an electrical outage in the tenacious predawn heat of September 1974. The setting is South Boston, and the whole neighborhood is bracing for a collision. With a daughter on the cusp of her senior year in high school, Mary Pat Fennessy expects to show up at a rally of white parents against the beginning of school

Next summer will mark 50 years since the federal court ruling in 1974 that forced the district to desegregate through busing.