Busing for the Sake of Busing

They said the violence would peter out in a few days, the white boycott in a week or two. They said that Boston would comply with Federal Judge W. Arthur Garrity’s order requiring school busing, that all would soon be harmonious; if the South could do it, certainly Boston could too. Such predictions quickly became inoperative: it was fear and loathing in Boston from the start [NR, Oct. 25, 1974], continued boycott, and, as anyone could have guessed, a gradual and now accelerating permanent white exodus from Boston’s wretched public schools.

The pro-busing forces tried everything. In October, they sent four Boston schoolchildren down to Charlotte, North Carolina to “rap” with their peers in that small Southern city. The four, one each of both races and sexes, returned with glowing reports, augmented by accompanying journalists who echoed that happy line. To John Kerrigan, then School Committee chairman and still its leading member, the Charlotte trip was a con job. Kerrigan presented extensive evidence from the liberal Charlotte Observer supporting his contention that “integration” there has been a disaster.

DB

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David Brudnoy

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They said the violence would peter out in a few days, the white boycott in a week or two. They said that Boston would comply with Federal Judge W. Arthur Garrity’s order requiring school busing, that all would soon be harmonious; if the South could do it, certainly Boston could too. Such predictions quickly became inoperative: it was fear and loathing in Boston from the start [NR, Oct. 25, 1974], continued boycott, and, as anyone could have guessed, a gradual and now accelerating permanent white exodus from Boston’s wretched public schools.

The pro-busing forces tried everything. In October, they sent four Boston schoolchildren down to Charlotte, North Carolina to “rap” with their peers in that small Southern city. The four, one each of both races and sexes, returned with glowing reports, augmented by accompanying journalists who echoed that happy line. To John Kerrigan, then School Committee chairman and still its leading member, the Charlotte trip was a con job. Kerrigan presented extensive evidence from the liberal Charlotte Observer supporting his contention that “integration” there has been a disaster.