Morgan vs Hennegan aka. "The Boston Bussing Case”

The purpose of this blog post is to grapple with one of the most controversial and difficult racial periods within my own home city of Boston.  This infamous episode is known as the “Boston Bussing case” or Morgan vs Hennegan”.  Hoping to bring down racial barriers concerning educational inequality and segregation, court documents stated that a number of  “Uncertified, provisional teachers, of whom there were 585 in the system in 1971-72 and 690 in 1972-73, were found in much greater numbers in predominantly black schools than in predominantly white schools.” Consequently, on June 21st 1974, Judge Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr. decided that Boston had helped contribute to segregated school systems within the city. The result of the case would call for mass desegregation and busing.  While this seemed like a good idea in theory, widespread violence and intimidation marked Boston School systems for more than a decade.  It was an increasingly difficult time for African Americans as they were asked to join large majority white schools in few numbers.  But the question that is consistently asked is if the Bussing was failure? In my opinion, the busing was a logistical error not an ideological one.  If it is as simple to say that we should never change than it would be okay to dismiss the “socioeconomic segregation of schools”.  In the case of African American Activists, they typically had to combat against “tradition”.  Tradition can be a dangerous concept because it makes us so engrained in our ways that we are never able evolve or adapt to our environment.  The reason why the Bussing case was a logistical failure was due to a multitude of factors, but most importantly the problem wasn’t the African Americans it was the collective white group. Thus, Tension between the two sides was inevitable because of the way people were raised in Boston, and sadly many parts of the city are still the same way. Regardless, dismissing the need for change is something that is inherently wrong.   

Source: http://www.blackpast.org/primary/boston-bussing-case

Source#2: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/the-boston-busing-crisis-was-never-intended-to-work/474264/