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.
The new book Why Busing Failed examines the pitched battles over busing on a national scale focusing on cities such as Boston, Chicago, New York and Pontiac, Michigan. The book shows how school officials, politicians, the courts and the media disregarded the rights of black students and gave precedents to the desires white parents who opposed desegregation. Why Busing Failed is authored by Matthew Delmont, Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University.
