6-2 Discussion: Supporting a Thesis Statement

I’m stuck on a History question and need an explanation.

Based on your reading in the webtext, select and respond to one of the following thesis statements. Your response should be two to three paragraphs long and should include your position on the issue. Cite at least three specific pieces of historical evidence.
1. In the long run, busing helped Boston because it desegregated the school system, provided equal educational opportunity for minority students, and set the stage for racial healing and an improved racial climate in the twenty-first century.
OR
2. In the long run, busing hurt Boston because it led to violent racial strife, contributed to white flight, and damaged the quality of the public school system.
In response to your peers, explain what you learned from reading their post and how their thesis statement compares to your own. You may respond to peers who selected either of the two thesis statements.
To complete this assignment, review the Discussion Rubric document.
Rubrics is a attachment
1st response needed
Week 6 Discussion Tanner Blake posted Apr 8, 2020 5:11 PM
When discussing the topic of Boston Busing Crisis, I would like to talk about how in the long run, busing hurt Boston because it led to violent racial strife, contributed to white flight, and damaged the quality of the public school system. The reason why I am siding with option 2, the side that hurt Boston, is because there were more immediate negative impacts than there were positive impacts at the time and for the next 20+ years. The negative impacts were piling up, white residents were moving out of the area, school dropout rates were climbing, more and more police patrolling the area, children being in the line of fire for no reason while riding the buses and the list goes on. One of the most interesting pieces I read was when Mayor Kevin White stated “If Boston were a sovereign state, busing would be cause for a revolution.” If that doesn’t state how bad the Boston Busing Crisis was, I don’t know what would!
Another reason why I feel that the busing hurt Boston is because when the total school population went from 93,000 in 1971-1972 down to 60,000 in 1990, this was the worst consequence for long term to the public schools of Boston, not only did the children suffer, but the teachers did too. When looking at the academic side of this crazy event, what was most shocking to me was that even though children were doing poorly in school and even failing, they were still being promoted to the next grade! For example, in the reading it stated “At Dorchester’s William E. Endicott School, 95 percent of the fifth-graders scored “poor” or “failing” in reading and 100 percent scored “poor” or “failing” in math. Yet all of these students were promoted to the next grade.” How does a school justify these actions? To me, this was setting a student up for failure at a later date in life. When looking at SAT scores from Boston it was stated “On average, SAT test takers in the city’s high schools scored 845 (out of 1600)…” This absolutely blew my mind in terms of how poorly the education system is over there and the fact that it could be worse today is even more concerning! If they did not correct them and teach them the proper way, who was going to step up and do it for them? As a parent, if I would have known this was going on, I would have been furious!
2nd response needed
Morgan Gourley posted Apr 8, 2020 8:55 PM
The tricky part of these thesis statements is “in the long run” because yes eventually there was desegregation in Boston but that wasn’t until after there was violence, apparent white flight, and a damaged quality of the school system. Because of this I lean more towards the second thesis statement; In the long run, busing hurt Boston because it led to violent racial strife, contributed to white flight, and damaged the quality of the public school system. It said in the reading that critics argued whether school bussing was a mathematical balance to the issue of segregation rather than improving school quality like African American families where originally concerned about. Judge W. Arthur Garrity’s solution of ordering any school whose enrollment was more than 50% nonwhite must be balanced according to race doesn’t feel like a direct solution to improving school quality, especially since the Boston School Committee was against desegregation to begin with. (Gellerman, 2014)
The reading mentions the riots and violence that occurred at the very beginning of the school year. When school started in September buses were met with white protesters some of which threw bricks and rocks at the buses. (Wolff, 2015) The protesters were growing so violent that between 1974 and 1976 the National Guard became involved by escorting students to school to protect them from crowds that would often end up fighting. Things got so bad that not only African American students were being affected too but white students were beginning to boycott school due to safety concerns and the student population decreased by 40%. (Lukas, 1985) The opposite of improving school quality was happening as there wasn’t enough time for education due to all the activity of those who were against school busing continued to take action against the students. In 1990 Boston’s population decreased by 66,788 from 1970 and approximately 59% of residents were white compared to the 82% of white residents in 1970. (U.S. Civil Rights Commission, 1975) This action of white flight may or may not be directly correlated with school busing, regardless the numbers still decreased significantly. School busing seems like a very round-about way of addressing the issue that African American families were protesting. It seems like it added fuel to a fire that was already there, maybe inevitably there and that’s why I think the second thesis statement is more relevant to the reading.
Boston’s Busing Crisis: Further Reading
This page offers you two readings that provide very different views of the Boston busing crisis.

The first article argues the need for busing as a means to desegregate the schools; the second argues that busing hurt the quality of Boston’s schools. Both readings are required, to help you gain a better understanding of both sides of this issue.
The first reading is excerpted from “Deep Are the Roots: Busing in Boston”. This article was written in 1976, while the busing crisis was taking place. Click on the title of the article to read, download, and print a copy of the text. These readings are provided by the Shapiro Library. You will have to log into Shapiro Library with your SNHU credentials to access this article.
“No Other Alternative”
Frightening scenes have been observed in streets and schools. Caravans of buses have been escorted by squads of motorcycle police. Other police, all the force could supply, stood elbow to elbow to protect black youngsters. Still, violence was not prevented. Stones and bottles thrown at buses broke the windows and cut children’s skin. High school students beat each other with fists and clubs. A black man who happened to be parked near a gang of white youths was dragged from his car, kicked and beaten until rescued—and only because he was black.
…The[se] episodes seem to be most incongruous with the state which originated the nation’s first open-housing law and subsequently passed an admirable racial imbalance law to assure equal educational opportunity for all of its children. Indeed, such hostile acts do not seem consistent with Boston—the “cradle of liberty”—the city that desegregated schools in 1855! Dan Richardson, a former Federal housing official, has provided a possible explanation: “We pass great laws here, but when it comes to Boston, there’s never any enforcement. This must be one of the most segregated cities anywhere in housing and in schools, North or South.”
…On Monday night, protesters firebombed the birthplace of former President John F. Kennedy and scrawled “Bus Teddy” on the front sidewalk. One of the 94 persons arrested during the first four days of school was a South Boston youth who was carrying 15 firebombs in his car. A school bus had disappeared, but 69 per cent of the students were in attendance and there were no serious injuries. School authorities were anticipating a successful school year. Busing is an unpopular term in Boston and many white parents are asking why it is necessary. They feel that if all schools had quality education busing would be unnecessary. Busing is not totally accepted by black parents, but they realize that segregated housing, in many instances, leaves no other alternative to quality integrated education.
The second reading is excerpted from “Busing’s Boston Massacre”. This article was written in 1998, long after the crisis had ended. Click on the title of the article to read, download, and print a copy of the text. These readings are provided by the Shapiro Library. You will have to log into Shapiro Library with your SNHU credentials to access this article.
“Cause for a Revolution”
“Eighty percent of the people in Boston are against busing,” said Mayor Kevin White. “If Boston were a sovereign state, busing would be cause for a revolution.” On the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, [Federal Judge] Arthur Garrity ruled over Boston like a reincarnated King George. In the school system, his word was law and integration without representation had become the new tyranny.
…Busing has not only failed to integrate Boston schools, it has also failed to improve education opportunities for the city’s black children. When Boston introduced Stanford 9 testing to the public schools in 1996, 94 percent of seventh-graders at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School scored “poor” or “failing” in math, as did 73 percent of fifth-graders at Brighton’s Alexander Hamilton School. At Dorchester’s William E. Endicott School, 95 percent of the fifth-graders scored “poor” or “failing” in reading and 100 percent scored “poor” or “failing” in math. Yet all of these students were promoted to the next grade.
On the statewide Iowa Reading Test, the Boston Public Schools ranked 275 out of the 279 cities and towns in Massachusetts. Even the working-class city of Lawrence, with a large immigrant population and a high crime rate, outscored the Boston Public Schools despite the fact that Lawrence teachers make almost $15,000 less on average than Boston teachers.
…On the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), Boston fares even worse. On average, SAT test takers in the city’s high schools scored 845 (out of 1600) in 1996, surpassing only those in Chelsea. If you exclude the three exam schools, Boston would surely be last. With pathetic standardized test scores and an average promotion rate of 94 percent, it is hard to imagine the Boston Public Schools have improved since busing began. In fact, the evidence suggests they are probably worse.

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