Documentary Style
HistoricalThe Busing Battleground
Rocks thrown at school buses. Racial epithets shouted at children. PBS captures the shocking violence of Boston's 1974 busing crisis through the voices of those who lived through it.
Year
2023
Type
film
Runtime
113 min
Language
English
Director
Sharon Grimberg, Cyndee Readdean
Genres
Summary
On September 12, 1974, police lined the streets as Black and white students in Boston were bused for the first time between neighborhoods to comply with a federal court desegregation order. Violence erupted.
The film traces Ruth Batson's battle starting in the 1960s for educational equity. It shows how Boston's School Committee deliberately maintained segregation, how the 1966 METCO program bused Black students to suburbs, and how a judge's 1974 ruling forced integration. Through oral histories and current day interviews with people who lived through it, the film captures class tensions alongside racial violence.
A visceral portrait of how court-ordered integration unleashed chaos that shaped Boston's reputation and national attitudes toward desegregation for decades.