In this recording, Patrick Nolan interviews his friend John Rossi about his “idyllic” childhood in the Queen Anne section of Seattle. John remembers the process of desegregation in the 1970s at Worth McClure Junior High School, and the rampant fights between Black and white students. He recounts the failure of administrators to facilitate a smoother transition during busing and describes how his experiences then shape his views now.
In this recording, Ed Bol is interviewed by Diane Buxton about his early life in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood. Ed explains how enrollment dropped off sharply in Queen Anne schools following the implementation of the busing plan during his freshman year of high school. By his senior year, his neighborhood schools were closed by the city. Ed offers his opinions about why school desegregation was, in his view, a failed experiment.
In this recording, Julia Juarez-Kostelnik speaks with her mother Della Kostelnik Juarez about her formative years in Seattle public schools. Della describes the importance of her principal Roberta Byrd Barr - an activist, actress, and educator - in teaching her the politics of social justice. She also recalls her parents’ efforts to inculcate a diverse worldview in her, signing her up for a volunteer busing program in Seattle during the 1960s.
In this recording, brother and sister Dorothy and Ben Davis remember their youth as the children of foreign service workers. Born in Liberia and raised partially in Tunisia and New Jersey before settling in Washington, DC, attending school in Boston, Dorothy and Ben reflect upon their late exposure to desegregation in schools, which compounded their culture shock after years abroad.
In this recording, Jarrod Sport interviews Dr. Donald Felder, a former Seattle public school administrator and an advocate for educational equity. After settling in the majority-Black Central Area of Seattle, Dr. Felder was instilled with a sense of the importance of community as a child. As a student during desegregation, Dr. Felder witnessed the disparities between community schools, and came to see equal access to resources as central to student success in his career.
In this recording, friends of over fifty years James Allen Phares and Charlie Garrott recall their childhood in Jackson, MS. Charlie remembers the first signs of desegregation coming in the early 1960s, when Black teachers appeared in his elementary school. Both James and Charlie were bused to majority-Black schools in Jackson when the immediate integration of schools was ordered. James remembers being out of school for a month while preparations were made.
In this recording, Kimberly Neil interviews her mother Beverly Neil about growing up in Chicago Public Schools during integration. Beverly remembers school as a fun place to go to when she was in a neighborhood elementary school. However, Beverly describes incidents where white teachers would discriminate against and stereotype Black students in humiliating fashion. She also talks about the insularity of some Black student organizations at her integrated high school.
In this recording, 91-year-old Dorothy Cordova is interviewed by her nephew Allan Bergano about her experiences as a Filipino-American activist in Seattle during desegregation. Allan, who volunteered to be bused as a student, remembers the lack of opportunity at his impoverished and violent neighborhood schools. Dorothy describes her challenges to Seattle’s educational inequality and the inadequacy of busing alone to solve these problems for students.
In this recording, Diane Bezucha interviews Dwania Kyles, a member of the Memphis 13, the first group of Black students to integrate Memphis public schools. Dwania remembers her parents returning to the South from Chicago to become more involved in the struggle for Civil Rights. In telling her story of school integration, Dwania opens up about deeply traumatic experiences facing down angry white crowds, hostile teachers, and cruel peers.
In this recording, Dr. J. Keith Motley & Joseph Feaster, Jr. remember their involvement in the implementation of Judge Arthur Garrity’s busing plan in Boston. Joseph tells of his work addressing concerns of Black parents as a member of the NAACP’s Boston branch during the crisis. Dr. Motley, who was a student at Northeastern at the time, recounts the violence and anger he witnessed as busing brought racist fury in Boston to the fore.
In this recording, Leigh-Ann Carr interviews her friend, former Boston Public School student and South Boston resident Tess Decosta, about the lead-up to and implementation of the busing plan and the anger in the white communities of Boston at that time. Tess discusses her experience of the unrest in South Boston and the pervasive fear that defined the responses of her peers and neighbors to the crisis.
In this recording, friends and neighbors from Jamaica Plain, Judith “Judy” Stoia and Patricia “Pat” Kelly, tell of their experiences of the busing crisis. Pat, a former teacher in Charlestown, talks about her class of poor white children, and the shunning she received from white teachers during the first year of busing. Judy, a reporter in Boston at the time, recounts the fury of white residents and the fundamental misunderstandings that drove them to anger.
