Minority groups during desegregation of Boston Public Schools

Suggested Teaching Instructions

This activity is appropriate while teaching the Civil Rights Movement. For grades 7-12. Approximate time needed is 50 minutes. It can be an individual student activity, for partners, or for small cooperative groups.

Students will be able to compare and contrast the similarities and differences of how the desegregation of Boston Public Schools impacted Latino and Chinese stakeholders.

Students will then analyze the primary source documents to identify the motives they think each stakeholder might have had for desegregation.

Historical Background: In 1972, parents of African American children brought a class action lawsuit alleging that the Boston School Committee violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by a deliberate policy of racial segregation. Judge W. Arthur Garrity, Jr. found that the Boston School Committee had intentionally carried out a program of segregation in the Boston Public Schools. The ruling, upheld unanimously by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, ordered the Boston School Committee to formulate a permanent school desegregation plan that addressed student assignment, teacher employment, and facility improvement procedures, as well as the use of busing on a citywide basis. The Boston School Committee failed to present an adequate plan, so the court assumed an active role in the formulation of the desegregation plan and oversaw implementation of court-ordered desegregation in the Boston public schools.