#school busing

Women at P.S. 69 in Jackson Heights protesting the busing of African-American students from schools in Brooklyn, September 28, 1959. The Board of Education said that this was necessary because of overcrowding in Brooklyn, but it also was doubtless in response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. This prefigured the vehement anti-busing protests of the 1960s.

Recent Acquisition - Photograph Collection

Forty years ago: Desegregation in Boston Public Schools

Boston, Massachusetts, has long been a crucible for social, cultural, and political change. But Boston is also a city of contradictions.

Forty years ago, a group of parents filed a formal complaint in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts.  The case beings with this simple sentence: “This is a class action brought by black children attending the Boston public schools and their parents.”

Tallulah Morgan et al. v. James W. Hennigan et al., United States District Court Civil Action Case File No. 72-911-G—known as the Boston schools desegregation case—occupies 54 large storage boxes in the National Archives at Boston.  The case was presented over a period of two years, and on June 21, 1974, Federal Judge W. Arthur Garrity ruled that the School Committee of the City of Boston had “intentionally brought about and maintained racial segregation” in the Boston public schools.

The response to the implementation was protest, at times violent, but eventually the Boston Public Schools would change.

During the summer of 2014, a group of educators from across the country—elementary through college—spent a week at the National Archives at Boston and Chicago studying issues of civil rights.

They scanned documents like the above letter from Mrs. Sumner Bernstein. She wrote to Boston Public Schools Superintendent Leary explaining how her initial support of Boston school desegregation turned to anger and fear after her daughter’s experience at Boston English (10/22/1974, from the Records of District Courts of the United States). All of the newly digitized documents are available online by entering “Primarily Teaching 2014” in the documents search box.

They also used these newly digitized primary sources to create online teaching activities related to education equality:

What does it mean? Boston School Desegregation

Formulating Questions About A Primary Source from Morganv. Hennigan

Different Perspectives: Boston School Desegregation

An Introduction to Morgan v. Hennigan 

Civil Rights in Education: Legal Complaints in Morgan v.Hennigan 

Who were the stakeholders in the desegregation of Boston Public Schools?

Minority groups during desegregation of Boston Public Schools

Evaluating Police Protection during Boston Schools Desegregation 

Alleged Segregation in Chicago Public Schools in 1960s

School Experience in Chicago, 1950–1961

You can create your own activities on this subject with the tools available on DocsTeach!