EYES ON THE PRIZE EPISODE 13: KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
1974-1980. PART ONE: BUSING IN BOSTON SCHOOLS

DIRECTIONS: ANSWER EACH QUESTION IN A FEW
SENTENCES OR MORE. THIS EXTRA CREDIT
ASSIGNMENT, IF COMPLETED, WILL ADD UP TO 5 POINTS
TO YOUR OVERALL GRADE. ITS DUE ON OR BEFORE OUR
LAST CLASS MEETING.

1.   Batson described the situation in the Boston Public Schools as de
facto segregation. What is the difference between de facto
segregation and legally sanctioned segregation? How did Batson
account for the situation in Boston?

2.   In Boston, what was the difference between integration and
desegregation?

3.   Why did Hicks and others object to Batson’s description of the
schools as segregated?

4.   Why do you think Batson insisted that the schools needed to be
desegregated? Why did she believe it wasn’t enough to fix schools
in their local communities?

5.   In the 1990s, President Bill Clinton argued there was a public
interest in sustaining integrated schools. What is it? Is there an
educational value to school integration?

6.   What rights did the “forced busing” protesters think they had lost?
What were the similarities and dissimilarities between the
campaign against desegregation and the civil rights struggle?

7.   Do you think that the white majority had a moral and legal
responsibility to help blacks in Boston’s impoverished
neighborhoods? Do civic responsibilities cross community
boundaries or is each com- munity responsible for only itself?
8.   How do you think young students would have reacted to the busing
without pressure from their par- ents and the presence of the
media?
9.   In
Milliken v. Bradley
, a case involving school desegregation in
Detroit, Michigan, in 1974, the US Supreme Court ruled that
busing procedures were confined to school districts within the city.
In Boston, desegregation busing had also involved only city schools.
What do you think would have happened if suburban communities
had been affected by court-ordered busing?