Methods of School Desegregation

Warm-up

•How would you feel if you had to be bused across town to a new school in order to desegregate?

Announcements

• Debates are next Tuesday! • You need to come meet with me if you are

debating!• If you missed the quiz yesterday you must

come after school to take it!

Review

• What is Segregation? • the separation or isolation of a race, class, or

ethnic group

• What is Desegregation? • the action of incorporating a racial or religious

group into a community

How did school systems try to desegregate?

• Some created choice plans where families could pick where their kids went to school.

• The most used method of school desegregation was busing.

Busing

• Busing is when students are taken from different parts of city or town and brought to a school in an effort to desegregate the school.

• For example: If Digital Harbor had been a largely white school during the 1950s and 1960s, black students might be bused in from West Baltimore, Southeast or other parts of the city to desegregate.

Question 1: Why was busing needed at all? Why weren’t they able to desegregate by giving parents the option?

Neighborhood Integration• Neighborhood integration

was the idea of trying to have neighborhoods that were mixed race which would then lead to mixed schools.

• However, many people were very afraid of that and it led to White Flight.

• Question 2: What parts of Maryland are integrated?

White Flight• The departure of

whites from places (as urban neighborhoods or schools) populated by minorities.

• Question 3 What part of MD is mostly White?

What part mostly black? Why do you think this is true?

Case Study• We are going to

look at the case of Boston and figure out if busing was an effective way to eliminate segregation in Boston.

Anti-busing violence in Boston

Policy Memo• You are an aide to the Mayor of Boston.

Desegregation is again an important topic in 2010.

• You will write a policy memo to the mayor. • You will include a background on what busing

is and how effective it was in Boston in the 1970s and then decide if Boston should return to busing or suggest another solution to the problem of school segregation in Boston.