What if the schools in one neighborhood are all part of what BPS once euphemistically called "the circle of promise?" The last couple of BPS efforts to reform busing all foundered on the issue that one of its new zones would have contained pretty much nothing but underperforming schools. WBUR reports, talks to Roxbury City Councilor Tito Jackson.
Although mandated school busing here in Boston was implemented for a reason, I firmly believe that, for a number of reasons, it did noit work out the way it was intended.
It's a known fact that, for many years prior to mandated school busing, the all-white Boston School Committee had violated the Racial Imbalance Law in the most mean-spirited, egregious fashion, deliberately keeping de facto segregation of the Boston Public Schools intact.
Currently, civil rights are a Massachusetts hot button, with gay marriage and Jimmy Kelly penatrating the headlines and blog fodder.
Today being Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day of reflection on civil rights, I present two brief snapshots from Boston's voluminous civil rights history:
First, many people don't know that Dr. King first met Coretta Scott, a New England Conservatory student, during his time pursing a doctorate at BU. While here, he rented a room at 397 Mass Ave, where a small plaque still stands to commemorate his time in the Hub.
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