More resources on desegregation of schools

In addition to this post (late and somewhat in haste from Omaha), some more resources on this:

• Note the use of the word "bussing" itself is problematic, as children are and have been bussed in and around districts for decades, and it was only when black children were being bussed to white schools that it became an issue: 

Pro tip: being against "forced busing" was the preferred northern way to oppose desegregation (while distinguishing themselves from the south). Most students were bused before "busing" without objection from white parents. As Julian Bond observed, "It's not the bus, it's us."

— Jeanne Theoharis (@JeanneTheoharis) June 30, 2019



• What we might learn from Berkeley (which was a voluntary effort) is covered here. Both this and the page above are from Matt Delmont, professor of history at Dartmouth who also wrote Why Busing Failed.

• It is particularly important for those of us from Massachusetts to step away from Common Ground, the Pultizer Prize winning account of the desegregation of the Boston Public Schools in the 1970's. 

Black Bostonians disputed Lukas’s favorable presentation of white resistance to school desegregation, his emphasis on black family dysfunction, and his selection of a black family with no ties to the decades-long campaign to secure educational equality for black children (he found the black family he profiled through a social worker). Longtime Boston civil rights activist Ruth Batson described Common Ground as "one of the most devastating and distorted views" of Boston's school history.

(note: add this to my "still learning" list)


• There is some lousy dismissal of desegregation of fairy dust; please don't buy this.

• If you're interested in what the research in fact says about desegregation and its impact on students, Matt Barum has a good round-up of it. We shouldn't dismiss the loss of Black educators as part of desegregation efforts, for one. Do also read the work of Rucker Johnson, professor of economics and public policy at Berkeley, who wrote Children of the Dream: Why Integration Works. 

• Also, Nikole Hannah Jones has been tweeting up a storm, so go check her timeline.