Busing's legacy in Boston, 50 years later
Coverage of the 50th anniversary of a federal judge’s ruling that led to mandatory busing in Boston to desegregate schools is produced through an editorial partnership between WBUR and The Emancipator.
Essay: The empty promise of ‘diversity’
From desegregation efforts to DEI, shallow victories keep leaving Black students stranded, writes Pamela D’andrea Martínez.
As Boston pursues 'hub' model, city battles memories of segregated neighborhood schools
The neighborhood school model was a big driver of inequity among Boston public schools in the years before mandatory busing. BPS is hoping that a new kind of school model...
Busing turned a Charlestown school into a Mandarin language magnet. Now that program's closing
By 1975, many elementary school students were bused from Chinatown to schools in Charlestown. Today, there's still a significant number of Chinese students attending a Charlestown elementary school. Still, 50...
The beautiful vision of Boston’s Freedom Schools
Before busing, civil rights thinkers devised a solution for bad education: freedom schools.
The desegregation of Boston’s schools was a long time coming
Most observers have viewed U.S. District Judge Arthur Garrity’s order as one that was foisted upon the city from on high, as though no Bostonians wanted the desegregation that he...
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How school segregation survived Boston’s busing
Boston schools are more segregated now than than they were 30 years ago. Did integration fail, or did the people?
How Boston's Eliot School desegregated — and resegregated
Since the end of mandatory busing in 1988, white students in the Boston public schools have tended to 'cluster' once again in a small handful of select schools, due to...
The complicated history of school choice in Boston
Racially diverse schools are still elusive. Boston’s changing demographics have played a role — but so have decisions by city officials.
Timeline: Major events shaping Boston’s school busing era
Take a look at some of the key developments starting in the mid-20th century that shaped this pivotal era in Boston’s history.
'We were fighting for our life': Former Boston Public Schools student, teacher reflect on busing, 50 years later
Nearly 50 years after the ruling mandating Boston desegregate its schools, two people who lived through that history joined WBUR's Morning Edition to look back on what happened and how...