Why Busing Failed: Race, Media, and the National Resistance to School Desegregation

Matthew F. Delmont

Published by University of California Press 2016

Why Busing Failed

Race, Media, and the National Resistance to School Desegregation

Matthew F. Delmont

Volume 42 in the series American Crossroads

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520959873

Overview
Contents

About this book

In the decades after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, busing to achieve school desegregation became one of the nation’s most controversial civil rights issues. Why Busing Failed is the first book to examine the pitched battles over busing on a national scale, focusing on cities such as Boston, Chicago, New York, and Pontiac, Michigan. This groundbreaking book shows how school officials, politicians, the courts, and the media gave precedence to the desires of white parents who opposed school desegregation over the civil rights of black students.

This broad and incisive history of busing features a cast of characters that includes national political figures such as then-president Richard Nixon, Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley, and antibusing advocate Louise Day Hicks, as well as some lesser-known activists on both sides of the issue—Boston civil rights leaders Ruth Batson and Ellen Jackson, who opposed segregated schools, and Pontiac housewife and antibusing activist Irene McCabe, black conservative Clay Smothers, and Florida governor Claude Kirk, all supporters of school segregation. Why Busing Failed shows how antibusing parents and politicians ultimately succeeded in preventing full public school desegregation.

Author / Editor information

Delmont Matthew F. :

Matthew F.Delmont is Professor of History at Arizona State University and author of The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950s Philadelphia.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Origins of “Antibusing” Politics: From New York Protests to the Civil Rights Act Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
2. Surrender in Chicago: Cities’ Rights and the Limits of Federal Enforcement of School Desegregation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
3. Boston before the “Busing Crisis”: Black Education Activism and Official Resistance in the Cradle of Liberty Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
4. Standing against “Busing”: Bipartisan and National Political Opposition to School Desegregation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
5. Richard Nixon’s “Antibusing” Presidency Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	114
6. “Miserable Women on Television”: Irene McCabe, Television News, and Grassroots “Antibusing” Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
7. “It’s Not the Bus, It’s Us”: Th e Complexity of Black Opinions on “Busing” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	168
8. Television News and the Making of the Boston “Busing Crisis” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	190
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Pages
- Main content: 304

eBook

Published: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 9780520959873