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

Everyday Injustice

1974 marked a tumultuous time in Boston where white parents of school children pushed back – at times violently against the use of busing as a form of integration. This year, marking the fiftieth anniversary, the Boston Globe carried an investigative retrospective. They found, “50 years after busing decision, a school system still unequal, still segregated.” Further, “Busing 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.” What went wrong? Everyday Injustice spoke recently to Melissa Barragan Taboada, editor the Globe’s 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. The team of reporters were able to track down many of the families involved in the lawsuit – most of whom were willing to speak about their experiences 50 years ago – their regrets and frustrations. Listen as Everyday Injustice talks about the injustices of 1974 and 2024 in Boston – what made this situation so volatile and why ultimately all the struggle and sacrifice produced no discernible change.