Talk:Boston desegregation busing crisis

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 31 August 2021 and 7 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Rabbit2892.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 18:16, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Possible NPOV dispute
Did the crisis truly last until 1988? Did blacks and whites just start segregating again in 1988 and everything was fine ever since?

As of March 14, 2013 forced busing was discontinued by the Boston School Committee in a 6-1 vote. However, major busing still remains. Starting in 2014, parents and students will be offered a some choice and schools within a "walking-zone" will be given priority. This is expected to reduce the amount of students being bussed to non-neighborhood schools by 40 percent. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sampsonguy (talk • contribs) 20:41, 26 November 2013 (UTC)

Secondarily the sentence

"By the time the experiment with busing ended in 1988, the Boston school district had shrunk from 100,000 students to 57,000, only 15% of whom were white.[9]"

annoys me greatly.

I'm not going to argue whether the Hoover institute's summation of the actions of the Judge are correct or not. But by suddenly describing the crisis as an "Experiment", I feel the article looses more of it's objectivity. I mean, people with a more liberal bias could point to people of a more conservative nature whom are not afraid of describing events as the results of liberal experiments performed by activists judges whom all have forgotten the constitution. Or something like that. See for example my comment on the description of the photo "The soiling of Old Glory" below.

I feel somebody, with access to better source material than me, should take a closer look at the article.


 * I've gone through with a bunch of new sources, expanded focus of article. Hopefully this resolves the POV issues. --The Cunctator (talk) 23:30, 8 October 2014 (UTC)


 * FWIW I think this is well done. Certainly much more balanced than the version we got from the media at the time. --Rosekelleher (talk) 04:48, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

Wrong description of events
"One of the youths, Joseph Rakes, attacked Landsmark with an American flag, using the flagpole as a lance" uses a blog as citation - but the blog in question wrongly describes the scene using Wikipedia. A minor search reveals that the description is not true - hell even Wikipedia mentions this on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soiling_of_Old_Glory.

Modern Photo
It is jarring to have a photo of modern buses in an article about a historical event decades past.

The buses seem almost high-tech, and were certainly never used by students during the crisis.

I think the crisis would be better illustrated with a historical photo, perhaps some children from the time, or the iconic "Soiling of Old Glory"

I'll look around for something better.

--Bridgecross (talk) 19:00, 5 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Yes, agreed, a historical photo would be much better. Unfortunately, I couldn't find one to save my life (I looked all over Commons and scoured Flickr for anything with the appropriate license: no dice). Also unfortunately, The Soiling of Old Glory is a non-free image, the license of which stipulates that it can only be used to illustrate the article of the image itself. If you have better luck than I, feel free to fix this! Accedie  talk to me  19:44, 6 October 2012 (UTC)


 * I got nothin' Bridgecross (talk) 16:12, 9 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Found a few http://blogs.umb.edu/archives/2012/02/02/boston-busing-desegregation-project-film/, or http://ahiiperiod7.wikispaces.com/Boston+Bus+Crisis, or http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/02/08/835176/-tea-party-76-a-boston-bicentennial# I don't know the rules, so I'll just leave this here.Mpking (talk) 02:24, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

I removed the Modern Buses, and moved the Historical photo, that someone else placed in the article in 2013, in it's place. Mpking (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 00:01, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

question
Were students bused on actual school buses, e.g. all the way from South Boston to Roxbury? Someone told me that part of the objection was that some kids were having to take public transportation, is that true? --Rosekelleher (talk) 04:16, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

Boston current school demographics
This section doesn’t make ANY sense. Plus, “Asian” should be capitalized. 146.115.90.122 (talk) 04:44, 23 January 2022 (UTC)