I was wondering what everyone thought about the Boston desegregation film. And do you think that there could of been a beter solution instead of busing students to different schools?

The entire video I kept thinking about the two sections of town being very far away, but someone in class brought up the point that they were only a mile and a half away. So I think that it was not nearly as big of a deal as the crowds and the parents made it out to be. However the whole incident could have been prevented if more attention would have been given to the black schools ahead of time and made conditions better to start with. The bussing of students that goes on now is far more ridiculous than the mile and a half distance that the Boston students had to go.

I don't believe that bussing the students was the issue as much as the concern of the quality of education their children would recieve once the two schools were no longer separated. I think that the 1.5 mile difference shows in an extreme sense the differences in the conditions of schools today. The poor schools are like the black schools and the richer schools are like the south boston schools. Would the situation be as extreme today if we bused children from poor schools into the rich schools and the rich students into the poor schools?


Food for thought...

Linda Brock

I am not sure that we should have moved directly into busing the students. There was a great need for school improvement in the black community. No student should go to school in that kind of environment so why put whites or blacks in there? There should have been more of a focus on improvment before any of the busing began.

I agree that the white families reacted greatly out of hand and I think that is in large part because of the mob influence. The whole issue was out of control and needed great attention!!! Its so sad to know this was in our great nation not so far from home.

To me, the bussing issue of only 1.5 miles displayed the extremely hostile tendencies of a city of people living so close. The blacks and whites were neighbors, yet the whites felt they were entitled to keep themselves separate from the black part of town. I don't think that there was another possible solution. The judge could have ruled in favor of desegregation and given a time frame of 2 years, but would the sentiments of the whites have been any less extreme? I don't think so. It was mentioned in class that the whites should have given money to the black school for improvements, but also to be able to justify separate but equal facilities. But would the all-white school board have ever given money to the black school? Don't you think that the black parents had been asking for such for a long time? I think that desegregation was approached as best as possible considering the extreme hatred and race phobia of white society.