School Busing: Success or Failure?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/27/opinion/letters/school-busing-desegregation.html

Version 0 of 1.

To the Editor:

Re “It Was Never About Busing,” by Nikole Hannah-Jones (Sunday Review, July 14):

As a fifth grader in the Mount Vernon, N.Y., public school system, I had firsthand experience of desegregation through busing — as a 10-year-old white girl. I believe that the ability to become familiar with individuals whom I might not have otherwise gotten to know at this young age was the genesis of my lifelong commitment to social justice.

In 1963, we walked home for lunch from school. For most of us, it was a short 10-minute walk, but for the children who were bused from the south side of town, there was no nearby home to walk to. And so many families invited bused students home for lunch. Having the Williams sisters come for lunch gave me the chance to know these young girls and their families. It helped me to learn for myself about their family’s rituals, values and home life. And, of course, it really wasn’t so different from mine.

A subtext of Ms. Hannah-Jones’s article is the fear that white communities felt about what busing might do to them, their children and their schools. For those of us lucky enough to have a welcoming school community, desegregation through school busing was formative, and built an army of social justice activists.

Cathy M. WeissPhiladelphia

To the Editor:

As someone who was a victim of court-ordered busing, I applaud Joe Biden for his stance against forced busing in the past (“How Biden Became the Anti-Busing Democrat,” front page, July 15).

In 1973, I was one of the white students who was bused to one of the worst high schools in Prince George’s County in Maryland. How would you have liked to have been forced to attend a high school known for violence, drug abuse and poor academics?

White families in Prince George’s County who had children forcibly bused to poorly performing, unsafe high schools revolted en masse and moved out of the county. Forced busing resulted in a domino effect when these families moved — home values fell and businesses closed. Crime and drug abuse rose countywide.

Busing was stopped in Prince George’s County some 25 years later. Millions of dollars had been wasted, and it had widespread detrimental effects.

The elitist “scholars” will never admit that forced busing was a colossal failure. Nor would they ever send their own children to an unsafe, inferior school.

John MeinholdPortsmouth, N.H.

To the Editor:

Nikole Hannah-Jones argues very persuasively about both the rectitude of busing to reduce the perverse effects of segregation and the benefits of busing for black children. However, she fails to point out how busing will benefit white children, and until she or someone else does, white parents are not going to support it.

In the early 1970s I lived in a very politically liberal neighborhood in Westchester County and witnessed busing of white children into black neighborhoods and vice versa. After two years of this experiment, the white parents did not see any benefit to their children; quite the contrary, they concluded, rightly or wrongly, that it was harming them. Consequently, shortly thereafter virtually all white parents in my neighborhood either put their children in private schools or moved to a neighborhood where busing was not a factor.

Someone will need to make a convincing case to a majority of white voters in order for busing to be implemented widely in America.

Robert W. BertrandParadise Valley, Ariz.

To the Editor:

I was one of many white junior high students in 1966 who were bused into J.H.S. 8 in Jamaica, Queens, which had previously been attended only by black students. Initially, there were some worries and suspicion by both the white and black kids (not to mention their parents) and some incidents of racial tension and fighting. Nonetheless we all adjusted, and I count this experience in a desegregated school among the best of my life in numerous ways.

I had excellent teachers, both black and white, had friendships with black students that never would have happened otherwise, and learned invaluable life lessons about racism, inequality and my own unearned privilege simply because I was born white. So it breaks my heart that so many whites have spread the myth that busing is a huge problem for children, or that school desegregation has been a failure.

I can’t speak for the others, white or black, who were my fellow students. But speaking for myself, I believe it was a necessary effort and a resounding success.

Ellen SchwartzAneby, Sweden

To the Editor:

Regarding school integration by busing, Nikole Hannah-Jones states that “white Americans’ veneration of neighborhood schools has never outweighed their desire to maintain racially homogeneous environments for their children.”

This is not true and doesn’t reflect how many people feel about having their children attend nearby schools. My children attend highly regarded neighborhood schools that my wife and I chose by selecting where we live. The schools are racially diverse, and our children are of mixed race.

I don’t care at all about the racial makeup of the schools. I care about safety, academics and time. Having my children attend school several miles away would be a complete nonstarter, and I would not consider living in an area where this is possible.

Most of the country no longer has an environment where things are all about black and white; it’s a broad mix, and people are more concerned with academic performance than skin color. What you claim may have been true 50 years ago in a binary racial environment, but it really has no bearing in most of America today.

Kevin WoolleyEnglewood, Colo.

To the Editor:

This article on busing suggests that the reason parents opposed busing is simply racism. In other words, white parents did not care about their kids going to a school miles from home and neighborhood friends. Parents did not care if their children had to sit on buses for hours each day rather than walking to school. Nor did parents simply care about their child’s education. Rather, white parents’ only concern was that their children did not go to school with blacks.

This type of reasoning is insulting. The left needs to acknowledge that Americans make decisions for many reasons other than racism. Our life decisions are based on what we believe is best for our family.

I would contend it is not racism that is widespread. Rather it is resentment. After all the affirmative action programs and our efforts, we still read daily that it is not enough. Worse, our every action and words are scrutinized and then deemed racist on some level.

If the left truly wants equality and harmony, it should focus on the success of its work so far. It will find that acting as if it actually respects Americans will result in mutual appreciation rather than resentment.

Frayda LevinMountain Lakes, N.J.

To the Editor:

At a time when segregation is defining how many people live their lives, I was disturbed to see the narrow approach to the topic taken by Nikole Hannah-Jones. She talks exclusively about racism and black versus white, but Boston busing had a third critical angle: white versus white.

As J. Anthony Lukas wrote in “Common Ground,” there were three factions in Boston: wealthy white, black and working-class Irish. Today, researchers at the Brookings Institution report that socioeconomic segregation is growing and increasing inequities between high- and low-income white students.

I am not denying the issue of racism, but I believe we should not gloss over socioeconomic segregation, as it was a defining part of that crisis and defines the lives of many people today.

Erika CohenDerry, N.H.

To the Editor:

Busing destroyed the education system in Nashville with the loss of the neighborhood school. Wealthy families fled to the growing private schools, and the rest of our students were left to fend for themselves. Unprepared teachers were forced to deal with the conflicts between white and black, and sometimes against them. School discipline fell apart.

The quality of education was greatly diminished. Even elementary school classes became impossible to manage. The good teachers left. Drugs came into the schools.

The situation has not improved much. Heartbreaking.

Dolly Jane PrenzelNashville