Everyday Injustice Podcast Episode 243: Busing in Boston Fifty Years Later

Published: July 15, 2024, 11:21 a.m.

1974 marked a tumultuous time in Boston where white parents of school children pushed back \u2013 at times violently against the use of busing as a form of integration.\n\nThis year, marking the fiftieth anniversary, the Boston Globe carried an investigative retrospective.\n\nThey found, \u201c50 years after busing decision, a school system still unequal, still segregated.\u201d\n\nFurther, \u201cBusing was set in motion by rightfully furious Black parents making modest demands: equal educational opportunity for their children and good schools in their own neighborhoods. It never happened.\u201d\n\nWhat went wrong? Everyday Injustice spoke recently to Melissa Barragan Taboada, editor the Globe\u2019s award-winning Great Divide team, which investigates educational inequities in Boston and throughout the state, who spent 20 years as a reporter and editor in Austin, TX and Kris Hooks, who began his career in Sacramento.\n\nThe team of reporters were able to track down many of the families involved in the lawsuit \u2013 most of whom were willing to speak about their experiences 50 years ago \u2013 their regrets and frustrations.\n\nListen as Everyday Injustice talks about the injustices of 1974 and 2024 in Boston \u2013 what made this situation so volatile and why ultimately all the struggle and sacrifice produced no discernible change.