In the video we watched today in class, the black parents had no choice but to file a lawsuit against the school committee for equal schools. The judge ruled that the schools were unequal and decided to enforce busing from Roxbury to South Boston and vice versa. Both the white and black parents did not seem to agree with this decision. I am not sure how I feel about the busing, but I was wondering what everyone else thought would have been a better solution, or if you thought that busing was a good idea, why?

I feel that at the time they were probably considering busing as a great way to help integrate the African American students into the white school by offering transportation. This is a considerate option and one that, ideally, would be a safe one as well. Unfortunately, however, it was something that ended up producing some terrible situations. I do not know if there could have been a better option for them at that time because of the vast amount of hatred amongst both sides. Making it easier, and possibly safer, for the African American students to get to school seems like the better option in order to help the integration of the school progress.

This probably wouldn't have worked in the case of Boston from the movie since the school board was unwilling to cooperate but I was thinking that the system could have made incentives for people to send their children to schools outside of their neighborhood. The way that they implemented the busing program people were forced to do something they did not want to do. Incentives could include schools with different themes or that catered to different interests. (Similar to magnet schools.) I know this seems only like another way to make divisions but hopefully it would at least encouraged some students to spread out so that the schools could have become more racially integrated.

I believe that many of the African American parents filed for forced desegregation because they felt the schools were unequal. There were more students per class and fewer resources in the predominately African American schools. While watching the video, I wondered if the parents had complained about the lack of resources as their first method to create a better environment in their schools. This would be a smoother transition without confusing districts and removing children from neighborhood schools. I talked with Dr. Turner after class, and she said the parents did try this first. However, they did not receive a sufficient response from the school system.

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Audrey Fowler

I think the forced busing plan was very dangerous and was meant to be a quick fix. However, I am not sure what might have worked better. I thought that it really brought a lot of attention to the issue at hand and the inequality that faced African Americans all the time. I also think that the white people got a taste of what the African Americans had seen all along. They saw the horrible conditions, lack of resources and supplies, and felt the inferiority and discrimination that they had placed on their black counterparts. Despite the dangers and turmoil it caused, I felt like it did do a lot to promote awareness and the need for change.

I also felt that this was a quick fix for the city of Boston. I thought that the judge should have made the schools equal with adequate funds for both. By busing the students to different schools it not only took the students away from their friends and commmunity, but put the students in danger of being attacked for something they had no control over. I thought the judge mishandled the situtation and that he should have made changes when it was realized that violence was occuring because of his decision.

I think the forced busing was not only dangerous, but it was the quickest and easiest idea for Boston. I'm not sure what would've worked better, though. In spite of everything, I feel like it was a great idea to integrate these students and to promote awareness. It allowed the white students to see what the African American students had to go through.