Eli George Scott-Joseph
Senior Thesis | 2024
Before the Boston Busing Crisis of 1974:
Voices from the Freedom Schools
Eli George Scott-Joseph
Senior Thesis
Dr. Kristin Jewell
12 April 2024
1960s Boston had two kinds of schools. One type of school provided students wonderful opportunities to learn, explore interests like art, and good teacher to student ratios. Students often went to prestigious colleges upon graduation, especially Harvard. These were generally the schools in white neighborhoods or suburbs. The other type of school was underfunded with elementary school teachers often not having proper art supplies for students and with 30 or more children per teacher. Their prospects for graduating high school or going to college were dim. These were the forgotten kids of Boston whose city had abandoned them. The first schools were largely all-white whereas the second type of school was typically all-Black.1 As many readers might know, the Boston Busing Crisis of 1974 is remembered as the moment these norms were challenged. Ironically, the story that often gets lost is that of Black activists starting to challenge this system of
1 “Desegregation Busing,” Encyclopedia of Boston, Boston Research Center, accessed March 27, 2024, https://bostonresearchcenter.org/projects_files/eob/single-entry-busing.html.
inequality in the 1950s and the stories of the actual students and their own feelings about their plight. Often in this story, the students are treated as objects who are caught in the middle of two sides of adults fighting about what to do with them. The students are typically portrayed by photographs of brave children boarding buses or walking past angry mobs, but their actual understanding of what was at stake is never mentioned; and their efforts to call attention to this problem early on have been lost. Ask a long time Bostonian what a Freedom School was; odds are they will not know. This paper intends to highlight the experiences and actions of the children at the center of this monumental fight who voiced their outrage at school inequality by walking out of their schools and attending Freedom Schools.
The busing plan in Boston was implemented from 1974 to 1988 with the intent to end de facto segregation in Boston schools
which had been perpetuated for a long time.2 There was particularly a lot of violence and national media attention from 1974-76. This year, 2024, marks the 50th anniversary of what is known as “The Boston Busing Crisis,” and events are being held all over the city to honor the activists and examine the events.3 However, before getting to the culmination of the struggle, it is important to examine the factors and activism that brought matters to a head. We need to examine how Boston, a city noted for its liberalism and intellectual prowess, reached this place of extreme inequality.
The first enslaved person was brought to Boston in roughly 1638, and the practice of slavery was allowed and outlined in the
2 Morgan v. Hennigan, 379 F. Supp. 410 (D. Mass. 1974), Justia, accessed March 27, 2024, https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/districtcourts/FSupp/379/410/1378130/.
3 “Boston Desegregation and Busing Initiative,” MassAction for Justice, accessed March 31, 2024, https://www.massactionforjustice.org/desegregationand-busing-in-boston.
Body of Liberties until well over a century later in 1783.4 Once freed, Boston’s Black population lived mainly in North Beacon Hill where the African Meeting House also served as the school.5
In 1849, a Black girl named Sarah Roberts attended school at said place, and on her daily walk to school she had to pass by five allwhite schools. Her father, Benjamin Roberts, tried many times unsuccessfully to enroll his daughter in those closer schools but was rejected each time. The Roberts then filed a lawsuit which they ultimately lost,6 but in 1855, the state legislature of Massachusetts deemed school assignment based on race unconstitutional.7 This was the end of de jure (by law) segregation
4 Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, “Slavery in Massachusetts.” History of Massachusetts Blog, August 19, 2018. https://historyofmassachusetts.org/slavery-in-massachusetts/.
5 “Abiel Smith School,” National Park Service, January 6, 2023, https://www.nps.gov/boaf/learn/historyculture/abiel-smith-school.htm.
6 “The Sarah Roberts Case,” National Park Service, January 8, 2023, https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-sarah-roberts-case.htm.
7 “Desegregating Public Schools,” Massachusetts Acts, Chapter 256, 1855.
in Boston, but unfortunately, de facto (by fact) segregation would take its place.
It is important to chart the movement of Boston’s Black population, because they would not be able to stay in Beacon Hill forever, and these movements fed into segregationist policies.
Around the 1880s, the north slope of Beacon Hill became a desirable place to live for upper-class white Bostonians who had previously confined themselves to the other parts of Beacon Hill.8 Combining this with the fact that the houses were not what they used to be and often would cost a lot to fix-up, many Black Bostonians, who tended to be poorer, moved to the South End.9
For about a generation, Black families would stay there until similar issues led to them moving and becoming firmly entrenched
8 Massachusetts Historical Commission, “MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: BOSTON” 1981. https://www.sec.state.ma.us/mhc/mhcpdf/townreports/Boston/bos.pdf.
9 Bob Hayden, “Boston’s Black Population Took Long Path to Roxbury,” The Bay State Banner (Dorchester, MA) June 14, 2019. https://www.baystatebanner.com/2019/06/14/bostons-black-population-tooklong-path-to-roxbury/.
in the neighborhoods of Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and Dorchester by the 1930s.10
It was also around this time that the pernicious practice of redlining was employed in Boston to further aggregate disadvantaged minority groups throughout the city. Redlining was the process of taking maps of cities and putting sections of the city into different groups of who could qualify for loans.11 The practice is named because most often the worst level would be marked in red and usually encompassed minority neighborhoods. To move up in society, often taking out loans to pay for things like college, a car or a house is required and not allowing minority groups to access these things prevents them from improving their situation and compounds the poverty and the segregation. And, as more Blacks faced discrimination in hiring, education, and economic access, they fell further along the economic ladder and ended up
10 Hayden “Boston’s Black Population.”
11 Candace Jackson, “What Is Redlining?” New York Times, August 17, 202, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/realestate/what-is-redlining.html.
occupying the red-lined areas which only increased the population density within thereby compounding the difficulties of life.12
Another big shift occurred with the advent of the car which allowed many people who could afford it (mostly middle-class white people) to move to the suburbs to live while driving into the city for work.13 This process is known as white flight and, coupled with red-lining, impoverished cities across America as their tax bases disintegrated. Interestingly, because of this, Boston reached its biggest population in 1950 at 800,000 and has never recovered to that number.14 What also can be seen from the population numbers though is the complete explosion of the suburbs. From
12 Hayden, “Boston’s Black Population.”
13 Laura Chanoux, “From the City to the Suburbs: School Integration and Reactions to Boston’s METCO Program” (Bachelor’s thesis, University of Michigan, 2011), 7, https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/85252/chanoux.pdf.
14 “Population Trends in Boston 1640 - 1990,” Boston History and Architecture, iBoston, accessed March 27, 2024, https://www.iboston.org/mcp.php?pid=popFig.
1940 to 1960, Sudbury quadrupled, Dedham grew by 150%, and Wayland almost tripled, and these were all 98% white.15
It is also important to understand how public schools are funded because the process can be seen as very inequitable. Funding is raised through local taxes and, more specifically, property taxes.16 It may seem obvious then that places with more wealthy families and nicer homes get better schools than those with poorer people and poorer housing stock. As a result of these flaws in the system, by the end of the fourth grade, African-American, Hispanic and low-income students are already 2 years behind grade level in reading and math. By the time students reach the 12th grade, they are 4 years behind. Currently less than 30% of students in the bottom quarter of incomes enroll in a four-year school. Among that
15 Catherine Elton, “How Has Boston Gotten Away with Being Segregated for So Long?” Boston Magazine, December 8 2020, https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2020/12/08/boston-segregation/.
16 Jess Gartner, “How Are Public Schools Funded?” The Bottom Line, Allovue, accessed March 27, 2024, https://blog.allovue.com/how-are-public-schoolsfunded.
group, less than 50% graduate.17 This all illustrates the huge disadvantage poor Black and Brown communities face when trying to escape their circumstances, thereby creating a cycle of poverty. There is a general narrative about the Boston busing crisis that focuses on bigoted white people as the main actors in the situation and paints Boston’s Black community as sort of bystanders with less agency. This patronizing view is bolstered by the most famous photograph from the time which also won a Pulitzer Prize, “The Soiling of Old Glory,” which shows a white man attacking a Black lawyer (Ted Landsmark) with an American flag while he is getting tripped from behind.18 This is an astonishing photo showing the brutality with which white Bostonians responded to integration,
17
“11 Facts about Education and Poverty in America.” DoSomething.org, accessed January 12, 2024. https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-factsabout-education-and-povertyamerica#:~:text=By%20the%20end%20of%20the,they%20are%204%20years% 20behind.
18 Stanley Forman, The Soiling of Old Glory, photograph, April 5, 1976, in “Life After Iconic 1976 Photo: The American Flag’s Role in Racial Protest,” Weekend Edition Sunday, NPR, September 18, 2016, https://www.npr.org/2016/09/18/494442131/life-after-iconic-photo-todaysparallels-of-american-flags-role-in-racial-protes.
but in this photo, like the broader mainstream narrative, the focus is on the violence and anger of the white protestors; we do not see the extent of the resistance and advocacy of so many amazing Bostonians of color.
This popular narrative of the prejudiced, often blue-collar resistors to integration, fails to account for the roots of the struggle which were actually profoundly influenced by events in the small town of Williamston in North Carolina. Williamston was a town with an almost equal number of white and Black citizens, and the city had two schools, one majority-Black and the other majoritywhite.19 A white Boston minister named Charles Glenn went down to Williamston in the fall of 1963 to protest its segregationist policies, and he met the Williamston Freedom Choir, a group of politically-engaged school students who were trying to make a difference. He went to jail with those students and later received 19 Charles Glenn, “When Freedom and Justice Meet” (unpublished manuscript, January 25, 2020), 13, private collection.
letters and essays from them telling him about their experiences.20
Fortunately these letters and essays have survived and show the wisdom of these young people.
Gloria C, a 14-year-old, wrote, “I liked jail very much. I liked jail because in order to get freedom we have to sacrifice."21
To show this much moral fiber at the age of 14 is inspiring but also tragic in that at such a young age a child knows that the world is not a good place and in order to secure her right to live she must go to jail.
Barbara S. (age not given) in a letter titled, Jail - and What It Means To Me, wrote:
Jail really isn't as bad as most people think. It is true, I will admit, that the living conditions aren’t as good as those at home. However, once you really consider why you are in jail, your determination to stay is strengthened, and you are willing to endure any hardships that you may encounter while striving for freedom.
20 Glenn, “When Freedom and Justice Meet.”
21 Gloria C. to Charles Glenn, in Williamston Speaks: The Voice of Williamston, North Carolina, undated, Charles Glenn papers, private collection.
To me, jail is a haven of democracy. It symbolizes all of the injustices that we, the negroes, have suffered. Being in jail only made me more determined to continue my fight for freedom. I have been to jail twice and I shall go as many times as necessary to obtain freedom.22
Barbara shows an inspiring fortitude to fight for what she knows is right. Jail as “a haven of democracy” is also an interesting sentiment that is a sad reflection of the time. The right to assembly is often considered a hallmark of a democracy, but it was often being trampled at this time so going to jail became the demonstration of democracy’s failings.
Jackie B writes a powerful letter entitled, We Shall Overcome; she writes:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances’ is Article 1 taken from the Bill of Rights, the bulwark of American civil liberties.
22 Barbara S. to Charles Glenn, in Williamston Speaks: The Voice of Williamston, North Carolina, undated, Charles Glenn papers, private collection.
Freedom involved other people. A person who thinks only of his own freedom and does not worry about the freedom of others often finds that he is very ‘unreasonable’. Freedom and equality are beautiful words to me. The people of the United States cannot honestly claim that they have created democratic freedom. Rather they have received democratic freedom as a gift from nature. Technical and geographical conditions made early America the perfect breeding ground for man’s noblest dreamthat every human being without regard to race or creed should have something to say about the conditions under which he lives. Freedom is not something that one generation can hand down to another. It has to be won by each man for himself and it has to be protected from those who would impair it.
I have been beaten and punched forcefully with cattle prods, sometimes three or four prods at the same time. Love for the officers and other authorities was shown to them by me. After recovering from shock, I went to the officers and told them ‘In the end truth will conquer!’23
The experiences of these students in Williamston would go on to have a profound impact in Boston.
23 Jackie B. to Charles Glenn, in Williamston Speaks: The Voice of Williamston, North Carolina, undated, Charles Glenn papers, private collection.
Many Boston activists like Ruth Batson and Jean McGuire ran for election to city council to raise and address the issue of school segregation, but, according to them, they were extremely naive. They did not realize how fiercely the city of Boston would oppose even the thought that the schools were de facto segregated.24 In the South there was obviously de jure segregation, but in Boston, the schools had nearly the same lack of diversity25 and yet nothing was trying to be changed. Partly the problem back then, and still today, is the de facto segregation that exists and the failure of many people to see it. In Common Ground, a book written on the topic of the busing crisis, a white woman, Alice McGoff, expressed support for the civil rights movement in the South, but when Martin Luther King, Jr. marched in Boston, she expressed skepticism: “‘What the
24 Vernita Carter-Weller, et al., “Organizing for Education Equity, 1960-1974, Led by the Black Community; Before Busing,” (Panel presentation, Roxbury Community College, September 26, 2023), https://www.masshist.org/events/organizing-education-equity-1960-1974-ledblack-community-busing.
25 Morgan v. Hennigan, 379 F. Supp. 410.
hell is he doing up here?’ As far as she could see, Boston wasn’t prejudiced against blacks nobody rode the back of the bus, nobody was kept out of restaurants; Boston wasn’t Birmingham or Selma.”.26
In the 1960s, a decade before the Busing Crisis, Boston’s Black community was not lying down and taking the discrimination, they were engaged in multiple forms of protest. Of particular note were the Freedom Schools in Boston which provided a haven for students from all over Boston of any race boycotting their own schools. Students came to these “schools” which were set up in churches or other community centers and learned about Back history and the contemporary civil rights movement.27 There was one smaller day in 1963 and a larger one in 1964.28 Many people condemned the stayout days, particularly the second one, saying
26 J. Anthony Lukas, Common Ground (New York: Vintage Books, 1985), 21.
27 Charles Glenn, “When Justice and Freedom Meet.”
28 Ellen Lake, “20,000 Pupils Stay out of Class; Boston Freedom Schools Overflow,” The Crimson (Cambridge, MA), February 27, 1964, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1964/2/27/20000-pupils-stay-out-of-class/.
that it was just a form of truancy for students. The co-chair of the event responded to those criticisms by clarifying:
We will permit our children to withdraw from public schools for one day, not in a spirit of defiance and not to devalue education, but to prepare to recapture our freedom. Children will attend Integrated Freedom Schools . . . where the presence of thousands of black and white children learning together will demonstrate the promise of what our public schools could be.29
An important part of these schools was the large reach they had.
Students from all over the surrounding suburbs came into the heart of the city to be educated at the Freedom Schools. Indeed, on June 18, 1963, more than 1,500 students came, and on February 26, 1964, more than 10,000 students boycotted their own schools to attend a Freedom School.30 The freedom school movement not only took place in Boston, but it happened in many other cities who had problems with de facto segregation. Boston’s freedom schools were unique in that they were attended by multiple races
29 “School Boycott Plan Holds,” Boston Globe, Jan. 24, 1964.
30 Ellen Lake,. “20,000 Pupils Stay out of Class.”
17 and truly emphasized showing how a successful public school could function.31
The letters written by the Boston students provide a lot of insight into how they felt about the world and how much they were aware of the situation they were in. One student said,
Today I am participating in the Freedom Stayout because I, as a Negro, want to do my part in helping to obtain this freedom which has taken so long to get. I can truthfully say that I did not participate in the school stayout last year because I felt nothing would be accomplished. Knowing nothing about the movement before, I can now see how other people like me didn’t participate in the freedom cause. It was this lack of knowledge that I and many others had for the whole freedom movement. . . . People, without education, are basically ignorant and go along on hearsay. This is one of the points that I learned at the freedom stayout. Education and knowledge of the facts are perhaps the most important factors to obtain freedom and equality for all men.
32
This letter’s tone is somehow hopeful and despondent at the same time. The student discusses their belief that nothing would change
31 Charles Glenn, “When Justice and Freedom Meet.”
32 “On Stayout Day,” transcripts of essays, Charles Glenn papers, private collection.
as a result of the movement for freedom. The student also brings up people being informed by “hearsay” without a proper education; this is particularly relevant to the information climate we find ourselves in today where so much more information is available, both correct and incorrect, through innumerable channels and yet its accuracy is difficult to ascertain. That is why the fight for fair and equitable education was and still remains so important.
Unfortunately, the limitations of protests and boycotts is that they often do not reach those who are not otherwise educated on the matter. One student put it like this: “Meeting people on an equal basis and with a common goal is the best and only way I know. It’s too bad that this kind of gathering doesn’t entice the people who need it most.”33 Still, the boycotts and freedom schools did have an effect on some; for instance, Bill R. wrote: “I was surprised at the bitterness and despair of the high school negroes.
33 “On Stayout Day.”
They seem to have no hope for themselves getting a fair shake in jobs or education. This surprised me. Although it shouldn’t have if I had put myself in their shoes.”34 The superpower of high school students to be able to understand the world and have so much innate empathy is on full display here. Another student, Claire S., also had a realization saying: “While I was sitting in this room, something hit me. Because I live in Weston, I will go to college, get a good education and a good job and home. The kids here from Roxbury sitting right next to me may very well not do any of these things just because they live in Roxbury. This to me seems the height of injustice."
35 This is a very astute observation as it has been shown that the number one determinant variable of future success is zip code.36 The injustice being recognized by this young
34 Bill R. “On Stayout Day.”
35 “On Stayout Day.”
36 “The Opportunity Atlas,” accessed 31 March 2024, https://www.opportunityatlas.org/.
student is also what can bring hope. Young people especially recognize injustice and are not afraid to call it out.
Another white student, Peter H., told his account of the day and illustrated how his perspective was able to be reinforced by taking an extremely uncomfortable action.
Today has reinforced my support for equal civil rights. I personally have not had much contact with Negroes and wasn’t sure what to expect of the Negro youth with us. There was no attitude of wanting to physically fight for rights but rather one of uniting with the whites in a joint effort to exercise the rights which are theirs.
We all felt that the means to achieve this is through education, not just school education but education at churches, at home, at boy’s clubs, and the education of being together.
I don't think education alone is a means, but must be accompanied by action. This action can take the form of a school boycott, or by a person going against the prejudiced ideas of his parents or associates. A few people of the sort have and can do a lot.37
37 “On the Civil Rights Movement,” transcripts of essays, Charles Glenn papers, private collection.
Peter obviously came into this meeting with a little bit of apprehension and some prejudices himself. He admitted he had not had much experience with Black people and may have expected them to be more physically violent. However, Peter had the capacity to become a more educated person and showed how important he thought education was to increase support for civil rights.
Students who took part in the stayout day also had comments to make on the state of their own schools. Part of the de facto segregation was the stark contrast in school quality. One letter signed simply “A Nergo [sic]” says, “in (X) high we have rat [sic], mice, and everything that run around in our school. All the nergo [sic] sit in the back of the room. White are in the foront [sic].”38 It must be hard to learn in a school that is unable to hire exterminators to get rid of a rat problem. It must be discouraging to 38 “On the Boston Schools,” transcripts of essays, Charles Glenn papers, private collection.
know you are regarded as second-class and when you are in class you sit in the back. The rats represent the extreme level of neglect that these black students faced, and sitting in back underscored the reasons for that neglect.
Sometimes the cruelest thing a person can do is treat someone as invisible:
My younger brothers I hope will have an easier time than I had. I attended the Sherwin School as my older brother and three generations before that. I had no homework at all except for punishment until I got into the seventh grade. My math teacher, who was also vice-principal; of the school, was concerned about this and he tried to do something about this. But one man can not better a corrupt system. So my eighth grade class was neglected its true education. When we got into high school we were not all prepared for it. 3⁄4 of my eighth grade class are dropouts. I want something better for my children and their children.
39
Clearly this is an eloquent, observant young adult who is noticing the problems and neglect he is facing as a student. No homework except for punishment might also hint that this student is acting out
39 “On the Boston Schools.”
in order to get teachers’ attention. This is a common behavior for gifted children or really any child who does not feel stimulated at all by their classroom environment.40 The passage also shows just how doomed these kids are to not move up in society; it mentions that the writer's brother and multiple generations attended the same school with abysmal results. It also says that three fourths of the kids dropped out of high school which is sad but probably not surprising considering the wealth gap between Black and white Bostonians.41
Neglect was not the only thing that these kids had to suffer; extreme racism abounded and was underscored by favoritism by teachers who one can only really describe as evil. One kid writes about his harrowing experience in his English class.
40 Carol Bainbridge, “Why Gifted Children May Have Social and Emotional Behavior Problems,” Verywell Family, March 26, 2022, https://www.verywellfamily.com/social-and-emotional-problems-affectinggifted-children-1449336.
41 Akilah Johnson, “That Was No Typo: The Median Net Worth of Black Bostonians Really Is $8,” Boston Globe, BostonGlobe.com, December 11, 2017, https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/12/11/that-was-typo-the-median-networth-black-bostonians-really/ze5kxC1jJelx24M3pugFFN/story.html.
For my school last year when I was a freshman my English teacher was against all Negroes and was serious in failing all five of us. He did. But when school started up in September I took a make up exam and pass with a 95%. They check up on the teacher and find segregated wishes and instead of kicking him out they make him a librarian.42
What can be said about this passage when it already speaks for itself so much? A teacher who is an embarrassment to the art of teaching as he cared so little for the futures of the Black students that he simply failed them, and when a makeup exam revealed the evil intent, they did not fire him but made him a librarian where his racism would affect that many more students. One can not even begin to describe everything that is wrong with this situation. There were also instances of applications of the rules that were only used against Black children.
When a brown boy walks through the corridor with his tie loose he is spoken to by the teacher where a white could get away. The teacher in certain schools told kids they would be taken to court if they don’t come to school on “Freedom Day.” Some of the teachers talk about the student cloth. In (X) school
42 “On the Boston Schools.”
the teachers give the student the stick which affects the body of the student.43
Selective enforcement of dress codes is something that still affects students today. Just recently, a Texas student was told to cut his hair because the length of it when let down would be below his eyebrows even though the student kept the braids above his head.44 The student actually took the Texas school administration to court but lost the case45 despite Texas’ CROWN act (Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) that was passed relatively recently.46 In fact, you are a third to half as less likely to be suspended based on dress code if you are white vs Black or
43 “On the Boston Schools.”
44 Amanda Holpuch, “Black High School Student Suspended Over His Hair Length Sues Texas Leaders,” New York Times, September 24, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/24/us/darryl-george-texas-lawsuit-crownact.html.
45 Christine Hauser and Patrick McGee, “Black Student’s Suspension Over Hairstyle Didn’t Violate Law, Texas Judge Rules,” New York Times, 22 February 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/22/us/darryl-george-locshair-trial-texas.html.
46 Christine Hauser, “In Texas, a Black High School Student is Suspended Over His Hair Length,” New York Times, 14 September 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/us/texas-student-locs-hair-crown-act.html.
Hispanic.47 All of this is to say that selective enforcement of dress codes along racial lines happened in the past and continues to happen today.
The fallout of the busing crisis was felt and can still be felt all around Boston and its suburbs. For a start, the process of white flight was accelerated greatly by what happened during the time.48 There were also many violent attacks on students who were in the buses especially by the ROAR or Restore our Alienated Rights committee who were steadfast in their belief that schools should not be integrated.49 It also sadly did not fully address the main concern of students and parents alike which was the quality of the education that kids would receive.
47 Chloe Latham Sikes. “Racial and Gender Disparities in Dress Code Discipline Point to Need for New Approaches in Schools,” Resource Center, Intercultural Research Development Association, accessed March 28, 2024. https://www.idra.org/resource-center/racial-and-gender-disparities-in-dresscode-discipline-point-to-need-for-new-approaches-in-schools/
48 “Desegregation Busing,” Encyclopedia of Boston.
49 “Desegregation Busing,” Encyclopedia of Boston.
Although Judge W. Arthur Garrity’s decision in Morgan v. Hennigan ordered the desegregation of Boston schools in 1974, and while much work has been done to make Boston schools more equitable, there are, in many ways, still two separate schools in the Boston area. Particularly when you focus on racial diversity and expected outcomes after high school. For instance, the racial breakdown between city and suburban schools like that of Newton is still stark: in the Boston public school system the racial breakdown of students is as follows: 43.1% Hispanic, 32.2% Black, 14.5% white 8.7% Asian 1.6% Other/Multiracial; whereas Newton’s breakdown is: 7.5% Hispanic, 3.5% Black, 58% white
24.1% Asian .2% Native-Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and 6.6% Multi-Race/Non-Hispanic.
50 These Newton school statistics also
50 “Boston Public Schools at a Glance 2021-22.” Boston Public Schools, accessed March 31, 2024, https://www.bostonpublicschools.org/cms/lib/MA01906464/Centricity/Domain/ 187/BPS%20at%20a%20Glance%202021-2022.pdf.
include students from Boston who use the METCO program.51 The expected outcomes are equally stark between Newton and Boston.
In Newton South High School, 76% of students attend a four-year college after school which is almost double the rate of Boston public school children who attend a four-year college at a rate of 47%.52 This trend is not exclusive to Newton. The towns of Lexington, Belmont, and Weston, all have similar white majorities and tend to have better outcomes for students.53
51 “District at a Glance,” Newton Public Schools, accessed March 31, 2024, https://www.newton.k12.ma.us/domain/61. The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity began in 1964 to address education inequities by busing children from Boston to largely white suburbs to receive a better education. It still operates today which is perhaps an indication of the failure to address school inequity. “Metro’s History,” The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, accessed 31 March 2024, https://metcoinc.org/about/metco-history.
52 Boston Public Schools at a Glance 2021-22,” Boston Public Schools; “2023 School Report Card: Newton South High,” School and District Report Cards, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, accessed 31 March 2024, https://reportcards.doe.mass.edu/2023/02070510.
53 “2023 School Report Card: Lexington High,” School and District Report Cards, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, accessed 31 March 2024, https://reportcards.doe.mass.edu/2023/01550505. “2023 School Report Card: Belmont High,” School and District Report Cards, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, accessed 31 March 2024, https://reportcards.doe.mass.edu/2023/00260505. “2023 School Report Card: Weston High,” School and District Report Cards, Massachusetts
For a long time, the pervasive narrative about the Boston busing crisis was that it was white liberals fighting against white bigots on behalf of the somewhat helpless African-Americans. However, this narrative generally downplays the efforts of the leaders of Boston’s Black population. In recent years this has been somewhat rectified by modern tellings of the events. These retellings remain somewhat problematic though because they still omit the voices of those who were actually being affected: the Black students of Boston. This paper shows that students, and especially highschoolers, were not mere objects for the adults to argue over. They were the recipients of the inequities and active in the movement to change their situation. Young people have a stake in the game which has often been overlooked by writers of history.
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, accessed 31 March 2024, https://reportcards.doe.mass.edu/2023/03300505.
Bibliography
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