It’s clear that “busing” is just an excuse white parents gave so they can reject school desegregation. They argued that they didn’t want their children to have to be bused to in integrated schools, despite the fact that buses were already commonly used in most cities to maintain segregation in schools. The protests against busing took place before courts ordered to use buses to desegregate schools (29). The busing protests gave the North time to “postpone desegregating until ordered to do so by a federal court” (29).
“Busing” was a concern white parents could hide behind when they were really opposed to their children attending school alongside Black children, and it was effective. 15,000 white mothers protested in March 1964 against “busing,” and the protest shaped federal policies about school integration. Because they weren’t claiming to be against integration like the South, Northern states were able to claim issues with side effects of school integration, like busing, as an excuse not to integrate their schools. What the 1964 protest did was increase tension and fear among white people about desegregation coming to other city school systems, and it gave these cities a united excuse. Media like newspapers and television broadcasts spread this fear throughout the country, and limited attempts to desegregate schools.
We see again that the issue of “segregation” is more centered about the use of the word “segregation” rather than the segregation itself. Arguments presented about school segregation are met with literary critiques about “preferring words like separation and racial imbalance” (32). The dispute over “busing” is another example of diction being used as a tool to avoid a critical element of an argument. “Busing” clearly is a synonym for “segregation” in these protests. Superintendent Jansen used an argument of “extremists on both sides” to “present official inaction as a fair middle ground rather than as the maintenance of an educational status quo that benefitted white students and harmed black students” (36). Because of these twisted words, Jansen was able to listen to demands of white parents calling for “busing” rather than seeing it as an issue of segregation.
It is interesting to see how bussing takes a different meaning with the two different races that fought against it. When African Americans sought to fight busing in the 1950s, wanting to send their children to better school, busing was seen as a protest by the African American community as a protest against the perfectly normal status quo. However, now that Whites are protesting against busing, it is seen as a more critical neighborhood issue that deserves recognition. It received more recognition and a quicker response than the black mother got when they decided to keep their children out of school. In 1959, black mothers began a strike (like the white mothers a few years later) by having their children boycott the freedom schools that they believed did not have adequate resources for their children. The boycott lasted through the 1959-1960 new year, yet the board did not do anything major to address the parent’s issues except threaten them with losing their children’s custody. Even when the “New York State Supreme Court Justice Henry Clay Greenberg required the board and Superintendent Theobald to show justifiable cause why it refused the children admission to JHS 143 and 52, neither the board nor Theobald complied”(64). The African-American community in NYC struggled both through peaceful protest and disruptive protests to strive for better school conditions and educational resources for their children, however, in the end, for “…the majority of African American students there was no victory. The schools remained segregated and the Harlem 9’s children remained on strike while the board claimed victory in the battle over the schools. Though these strikes, like those of the Jews, disrupted the city’s social order and briefly created crisis situations, the board used its power to neutralize protests.”(64). In contrast, the White mother’s protests against bussing received quick response from the board, to soothe the white “taxpayer’s” worries about their children being forced to bus exaggerated distances, even though everyone knew the underlying reasons for the protests against bussing was not distance, as reported in the media about the bussing plan, but a more deeper, and uglier race issue that the North failed to acknowledge upfront. Like Christina mentioned, I believe that ““Busing” was a concern white parents could hide behind when they were really opposed to their children attending school alongside Black children, and it was effective”. The white mother’s protests were heard more clearly and respond to more quickly and efficiently than the black mother’s simply because the white mothers were white and they were “taxpayers”. Like we discussed in class, associating themselves with the word “taxpayers” gave the white protestors a sense of self-perceived legitimacy and superiority over then other races as law-abiding and contributory members of their society( even though the black families and the Jewish families also paid taxes). It is interesting how they attached themselves to the connotation of taxpayers in their protest against bussing and interesting use this connotation in their successful protest.
The comparison between the media coverage of the protest of the white mothers and of black mothers is also a really interesting issue because it shows the influence and the power of the media. Like Christina mentioned( and Haolin in his post), the media played a huge role in spreading the “exaggerated rumors” and scattering fear in the hearts of white taxpayers across the country about the negative effects of bussing. They united white families across the country in a fight against bussing by having widespread pro-coverage about the bussing issue in New York and broadcasting this news to Americans across the country to gain supporters for the white mothers against the bussing movement. In contrast, we saw the media contrasting actions with the black protest. During their protest, the media clearly favored the board and acted such a way as we discussed in our previous reading. It is interesting to see how much the media played a role in the success of the protests( the white protest being successful in part due to the media’s widespread coverage and advocacy of the white mother’s issue), and how the media still continue to exert a powerful influence people’s actions as recently seen by the influence of the social media on 2016 presidential election.
In conclusion, I agree with everyone that remarked on the issue citing the hypocritical reasons underlying the issue of bussing and the lack of equality between the protest of the black mothers and the white mother who, in the end, shared similar implicit goals of wanting the best for their children. The contrast reminds of professor Kafka talking about the lack of equity in these issues that, I believe, is at the base of the response to the two protests and the response to many issues in the neighbrohood segregated schools today.
Thanks for both of these comments. Just a quick correction to Kash that the Black mothers in 1959 were not boycotting the Freedom Schools – the Freedom School was created to teach children who were participating in the boycott (until it was shut down by the authorities). I’m curious if either of you have any sympathy to the white families who did not want their children bused to other neighborhoods for school? While it is true that many white children already took buses to get to school during this period, is it possible that the children of the boycotting mothers did not?