
Trailer | The Busing Battleground
Preview: Season 35 Episode 7 | 1m 53sVideo has Closed Captions
Revisit 1970s Boston, when court-mandated school integration unleashed racial unrest.
The Busing Battleground viscerally captures the class tensions and racial violence that ensued when Black and white students in Boston were bused for the first time between neighborhoods to comply with a federal desegregation order.
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Corporate sponsorship for American Experience is provided by Liberty Mutual Insurance and Carlisle Companies. Major funding by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Trailer | The Busing Battleground
Preview: Season 35 Episode 7 | 1m 53sVideo has Closed Captions
The Busing Battleground viscerally captures the class tensions and racial violence that ensued when Black and white students in Boston were bused for the first time between neighborhoods to comply with a federal desegregation order.
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
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As we all know, in one of her greatest challenges, busing.
I went up to Southie High.
We all knew something was going It was chaotic.
The place was ringed wit There were truckfuls of cameras.
The crowd was so violent, all I could think of was what would happen if I didn't make it to the bus?
When I reported to Kevin White on opening day that no Black child had been killed, we thought that It was the saddest day in Boston's history.
Busing will never work in this city, never.
Difficulties over segregation and discrimination In Boston, the neighborhoods are their own little sort of worlds.
People from South Boston didn't come into Roxbury.
People from Roxbury didn't go into South Boston.
There were patterns of racial discrimination everywhere.
Black schools were missing basic resources.
We felt that if we moved our students to where they were spending the money, we would benefit.
And the mo I can remember it was an angry, angry time.
I don't want to bus my child to any school.
I want to have a good school in my community.
We were told, your kid canno Wouldn#t you be upset?
If I had been assigned to I wouldn't have gone.
I did People were generally afraid for their children.
Many Black parents were saying, #We can't send our kids into the It's not a question of whether t e Constitution can be enforced.
It's only a question of at what cost?
The Battle for Bilingual Education
How Asian and Latino activists took on the education system in Boston and won. (4m 41s)
The Busing Battleground: Who's Who
In September 1974, Boston schools prepared to integrate via a court-mandated busing plan. (59s)
Chapter 1 | The Busing Battleground
Video has Closed Captions
Watch a preview of The Busing Battleground. (11m 9s)
Bill Russell addressed the thousands of students gathered for the Freedom Stay-Out. (2m 18s)
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Corporate sponsorship for American Experience is provided by Liberty Mutual Insurance and Carlisle Companies. Major funding by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.