Assessing Desegration In Boston Schools Forty Years After Court Ruling

Forty years ago, Judge Arthur Garrity wrote that the Boston School Committee had deliberately created two school systems: one for whites, one for blacks. As a remedy, he ordered that students be bused across the city in order to desegregate schools. The decision ignited a firestorm of controversy and violence. The impact of the decision remains a source of intense emotion and debate in Boston today.

Jim Vrabel, Boston historian and author of the forthcoming book A People's History of the New Boston due out next month.

Michael Patrick MacDonald, grew up in South Boston’s Old Colony housing project, author of All Souls: A Family Story From Southie.

Donna Bivens, director of the Union of Minority Neighborhoods' Boston Busing/Desegregation Project.