Forced Busing

By Sara Shaw “Ashley, wake up!” her mother called. Ashley groaned as she rolled off of her bed to get ready. Ashley

got up after a few minutes and slumped around while getting ready for the day at school. Ashley did her

normal routine; got dressed, brushed her hair & teeth, ate breakfast, and then went to catch the bus.

When Ashley got on the bus, there were a few new kids riding on the bus. Ashley was pretty confused,

maybe she got on the wrong bus. Ashley didn't know Forced Busing was going on, until she got to

school. When she got to school, there were kids fighting, screaming, and calling each other names.

Ashley was very confused. Usually people were talking, laughing and getting to class. Ashley put her

back pack in her locker and quickly got her books. Ashley walked into her classroom. Ashley sat in her

seat and had a new kid next to her. “Hi, I’m Ashley!” she said to the new kids. She noticed these new

kids weren’t like the kids she was used to,they were colored, something Ashley wasn’t used to going to

school with. One new girl gave Ashley a grumpy look,another looked at her and walked away. “Why are

these new kids ignoring me?” Ashley asked her teacher, Mrs. Carol.

“All the new kids aren’t really, excited to be here,” Mrs. Carol said. Ashley went back to her table, and

just waited for class to start.

At 8:35 the school bell rang. Everyone got into their seats and was ready for class, well at least a few

were. Mrs. Carol had to get a few new kids to settle down and take a seat. “Get away from me!” said

one of the new girls. Mrs. Carol had an upset look. A bunch of other new kids started running around,

yelling, and being horribly rude to Mrs. Carol. The principal, Mr. Dutch, had to go to every classroom and

take control of the new kids. At the end of the day Ashley packed her bag up and headed for the bus.

When Ashley arrived home, her mother wasn’t happy, nor was her father. Ashley’s mom was on the

phone complaining, something about the kids. Ashley’s father was telling Ashley what had happened, he

explained to her all about Forced Busing. A little later, Ashley’s family sat down for dinner. During the

whole meal, Ashley’s parents kept complaining about the Forced Busing. After dinner, Ashley went to

bed. Lying in bed, Ashley thought about Forced Busing. She didn’t like the idea of it at all, and just

thought everyone should keep separate to have everything be normal and okay like usual.

The next morning Ashley got on the bus and went to school, today there were hundreds of parents

and kids protesting outside of her school. Ashley saw people screaming, holding up signs saying all kinds

of hurtful comments. The teachers and principle were trying to calm down the parents. Soon then, the

cops started to come. Everyone was forced to leave. In school, again, bullying, and everything again.

A few months later things started to settle down. Parents started to take in that Forced Busing wasn’t

actually that big of a problem. Kids started to get along very well, and Ashley made a new best friend,

Miranda, and she was colored. Kids weren’t mean to teachers and they paid attention,no one got in

trouble, and everyone was actually happy Forced Busing happened. After all this craziness Ashley

learned it was better to put all colors together, and it wasn’t so bad after all. Also, Ashley now noticed

everyone felt the same in the beginning but they got through it and that was a lesson everyone should

learn, not to judge before you know who someone is, even if they’re a little different.

Author’s Note By: Sara Shaw

In 1974, the event of Forced Busing happened in South Boston, Massachusetts, also known as Desegregation busing. This was to bring together black and white students to overcome the effects of residential segregation on local school demographics.

In the 70’s, South Boston was a quiet, peaceful town, where kids would play outside with their friends, and could be happy... until the day of June 21st, 1974. This was the day Forced Busing was applied to the South Boston schools. Once everyone heard about this “change”, parents were adamant to jump out of their seats, have quick complaints, and protest against Forced Busing.

Once every student was switched into their new schools, they met different people, not very politely, and in schools there were always riots between kids, and usually someone would end up being hurt. Also, in these new schools there were NO black/ colored teachers, in any school.

During this event, the government did have many complaints to hear and deal with. Even when they wouldn’t change any of the laws, or do much for them, parents wouldn’t stop going at them. Although the government struggled with protesting, and mad citizens, nothing bad happened to the economy, and nothing went down.

This event caused a lot of people to move their children to private schools, because they did not want their kids to interact with another color . Some parents thought it was “unhealthy” for their kids to go to the same school with both black and white students. Some parents thought it was too dangerous to risk their kids getting hurt because of all the riots that went on. And some parents didn’t agree with Forced Busing, but they also didn’t find it necessary to send their children to a private school. They thought it would all settle down soon enough. And it did. Eventually kids got along, no one fought, there was no racism, hatred, and public, black and white schools were an open, safe place to come in everyday and learn new things!

-Sara Shaw

Works Cited“Busing’s Boston Massacre.” Hoover Institution Stanford University. Stanford Junior University , 2012. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. <http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/7768>. This resource ( Hoover Institution Stanford University ) tells people all of the information about the specific topic they are researching. I was researching the Forced Busing in Boston. Hoover Institution Stanford University helped me find a lot of information about why it happened, when, and who decided it would happen. This resource is a good place to go when you need to find quick and great facts about whatever you’re researching.

Shaw, Donna. Personal interview. 2 Apr. 2012. I interviewed my mom Donna Shaw about my HF event Forced Busing. My mom gave me a lot of useful information that I needed for my HF Author’s Note. All my questions were answered and I got a lot of interesting facts about Forced Busing. When this started my mom was in 1st grade and experienced this, and that’s why I trust her facts and why I interviewed her.

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. N.p., 26 Feb. 2012.Web. 5 Mar. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desegregation_busing_in_the_United_States>. I found Wikipedia as a great and useful resource for my topic. It gave me information on who started forced busing, why it started, what happened, and results. I would recommend Wikipedia to anyone who needs to know great, detailed facts and wants to learn more about anything.