The Other Boston Busing Story: What's Won and Lost Across the Boundary Line » (1st Edition)

Susan E. Eaton is consulting researcher, Civil Rights Project at Harvard, Harvard University, and coauthor of Dismantling Desegregation. For her previous work as a journalist specializing in education and children's issues, she received awards from the National Association of Black Journalists and the Massachusetts Teachers Association.

"METCO, America's longest-running voluntary school desegregation program, has for 34 years bused black children from Boston's city neighborhoods to predominantly white suburban schools. In contrast to the infamous violence and rage of forced school busing within the city in the 1970s, METCO has quietly and calmly promoted school integration. How has this program affected the lives of its graduates? Would they choose to participate if they had it to do over again? Would they place their own children on the bus to suburbia?" "Sixty-five METCO graduates vividly recall their own stories in this revealing book. Susan E. Eaton interviewed program participants who are now adults, asking them to assess the benefits and hardships of crossing racial and class lines on their way to school. Their answers poignantly show that this type of racial integration is not easy - they struggled to negotiate both black and white worlds, often feeling fully accepted in neither. Even so, nearly all the participants believe the long-term gains outweighed the costs and would choose a similar program for their own children - though not without conditions and apprehensions."--BOOK JACKET.

Booklist

A compelling look at successful school desegregation.