From Little Rock to Boston: The History of School Desegregation

1984 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 551
Author(s):  
James C. Duram ◽  
George R. Metcalf
Keyword(s):  
School Desegregation ◽  
Little Rock ◽  
History Of

From Little Rock to Boston: The History of School Desegregation

1984 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 926
Author(s):  
Judy Jolley Mohraz ◽  
George R. Metcalf
Keyword(s):  
School Desegregation ◽  
Little Rock ◽  
History Of

From Little Rock to Boston: The History of School Desegregation.

1984 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 344
Author(s):  
Donald L. Grant ◽  
George R. Metcalf
Keyword(s):  
School Desegregation ◽  
Little Rock ◽  
History Of

Television News and the Making of the Boston Busing Crisis

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-234
Author(s):  
Matthew Delmont
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Television News ◽  
School Desegregation ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Local Television News ◽  
Production Techniques ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Television Coverage

People outside of Boston came to know and care about the city’s “busing crisis” because television news featured the story regularly and this essay examines how television news framed this story for national audiences. This essay illuminates the production techniques of a medium that framed the “busing crisis” in Boston for millions of national viewers. First, I examine how the television coverage of Boston busing in the mid-1970s focused on reports, analysis, and predictions regarding antibusing protests and violence. This day-to-day focus on current and emergent scenes of crisis ignored the history of desegregation efforts since the 1960s, including those that received television coverage in earlier years, like the community-funded Operation Exodus program to bus black children to schools in other neighborhoods and the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare’s suspension of federal school aid to Boston for violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Second, I consider how television news framed the use of force in the Boston busing story. Much of the footage from Boston focused on confrontations between antibusing protestors and authorities from the Boston Police and other law enforcement. Third, I look at how television news offered viewers background reports on two of the places at the center of the busing story, South Boston and Charlestown. Finally, I analyze how local television news programs in other cities presented busing in Boston as a failed policy and regularly replayed the archived footage from Boston to underscore efforts to educate viewers on the importance of upholding the law and avoiding violence. Boston was neither the first nor the last city to witness violent resistance to school desegregation, but extensive television news coverage fixed Boston as the emblematic busing crisis and shaped popular conceptions of the history of busing for school desegregation.

A History of North Little Rock: The Unique City

1987 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Tom W. Dillard ◽  
Walter M. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Little Rock ◽  
History Of ◽  
North Little Rock

Not So Simple Justice

2004 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-139
Author(s):  
Wayne Urban
Keyword(s):  
Legal History ◽  
School Desegregation ◽  
Funding Agency ◽  
Actual Amount ◽  
History Of

Five or so years ago, I sat down to write a proposal to fund the writing of a history of school desegregation. This was not easy to write, since I had to account for the legal history of the process since the Brown decision, as well as the actual amount and kind of school desegregation that had taken place in that period, and come up with a definitive, overarching theme by which these two accounts would be tied together. Though the proposal was finished and submitted for funding, I was dissatisfied with my ability to say anything thematically novel or convincing about what had transpired in the forty-five or so years since the decision had been rendered. The funding agency evidently agreed with my own view of the proposal as it was not approved. So, I put my interest in school desegregation on the back burner, where it has rested until now. Once again, I get to confront the issue of whether or not I have anything interesting to say about Brown and its aftermath.

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