Boston’s 1970s busing crisis is a critical moments in America’s civil rights movement. Championes as a solution to segregation in northern city schools, forced busing became one of the most divisive and regrettable episodes in Boston’s long and distinguished history. What ensued was a firestorm of riots, heavy-handed police response, political ping-pong, disenfranchised students, and lawsuits.
Those who were on the ground—teachers, administrators, and students—recount these events with empathy and precision. Joe Dotoli, who at the time was a young science teacher at Boston English High School, narrates the events with all the cultural richness of Boston during the ‘70s. This was the oldest public high school in America—with a prestigious history going back to the historic moment in 1821 when it was established as the first public secondary school in America. It boasts alumni like J. P. Morgan, Samuel P. Langley, and General Matthew Ridgway. By the ‘70s it was the epicenter of desegregation, and crumbling under the pressure.
Today this story is not so much one of clear triumph as perseverance in a racial and economic struggle still making American headlines today.
Joe Dotoli is an author and retired science teacher. He began his teaching career at Boston English High School in 1967. His years at English spanned the court-ordered desegregation of the school system and subsequent busing crisis of the 1970s. This is his personal retrospective of those years and a compilation of interviews with many of his former colleagues and students.