Busing+in+Boston++1974-1976

On June 21, 1974 a Boston Judge issued a court order to have Boston desegregate its public schools through forced busing. The forced busing began on September 12, 1974. This busing included black and white students. Only 124 out of the 1,300 students showed up at South Boston High School for the first day of school. This impacted many people in a negative way. Many people became very upset with the forced busing and began to protest. Also, many fights broke out because of the busing. "On a normal day, there would be at least 10 to 15 fights" said Phyllis Ellison a former student at South Boston High School. People would stone the buses and threatened to burn the buses down. An excessive amount of violence was caused because of the segregation in the Boston schools. This is just like Brown vs. Board of Education because they were trying to desegregate the schools just like they are with Boston Busing. They desegregated the buses which desegregated the schools.

In 1971, when the district tried to integrate schools, a group of black parents protested that it would force their kids out of a good neighborhood school. Public school enrollment dropped from 93,000 students to 57,000 students. Also the number of white students dropped dramatically, it went from 65 percent to 28 percent. Then a total of 78 schools closed their doors in reaction to the number of students decreasing. Later in 1982, 200 black parents formed a Black Parents Committee to petition substituting a school choice plan over forced busing. A poll in 1982 said that 79 percent of black parents with children enrolled in public schools favored an open enrollment plan over having their child forced into busing, 42 percent of those parents said that they did not favor busing at all.

[] Busing’s Boston Massacre | Hoover Institution Hoover Institution __[]__  __[]__  __[]__ __American Experience__ __PBS: Public Broadcasting Service__