Morgan v. Hennigan

Morgan v. Hennigan was the case that defined the school busing controversy in Boston, Massachusetts during the 1970s. On March 14, 1972 the Boston chapter of the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit against the Boston School Committee on behalf of 14 black parents and 44 children. Tallulah Morgan headed the list of plaintiffs and James Hennigan then chair of the School Committee, was listed as the main defendant. The plaintiffs' legal team decided to pursue the case as a violation of the U.S. Constitution. The School Committee was charged with violating the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments as well as the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The plaintiffs claimed that the defendants, the School Committee, the Board of Education, and the Education Commissioner, "ha[d] intentionally brought about and maintained racial segregation in the Boston Public Schools." In short, while Boston was not experiencing "de jure" segregation (segregation as a result of the law), it was experiencing "de facto" segregation (segregation as a result of action). Judge Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr. was randomly assigned to the case. He did not make a decision until June 21, 1974. At that point he ruled that the city defendants had contributed to the "establishment of a dual school system," one for each race. Garrity's solution to the problem of segregation in Boston would become an explosive issue in the city. The main tactics for reducing segregation were redistricting and busing.

Following World War II a major civil rights movement swept the United States. The 1950s and 1960s were marked by sit-ins, protests, marches and boycotts. By the 1960s this movement was brought to national attention as television created almost ubiquitous media coverage. The impact of the civil rights movement on Boston was magnified as the city's population of African Americans increased from approximately 42,659 in 1950 to approximately 104,429 in 1970.
In 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States decided a case which would advance the civil rights movement and become a major precedent for the case in Boston. In Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, the Supreme Court found that public school segregation "denie[d] to Negro children the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment." The judges relied on sociological evidence which showed that separate educational facilities were detrimental to the development of black children. When the decision was implemented in Little Rock, Arkansas the white backlash shocked the nation and the world. While the Brown case put an end to "de jure" segregation, "de facto" segregation would become the focus of activists and legislators in Boston.
In 1961, the Education Committee of the NAACP, led by Ruth Batson, began a series of meetings with Boston's School Committee in order to make the members admit that de facto segregation existed in Boston's schools. Batson's argument rested on facts: thirteen schools in Boston were at least ninety percent black and the budgets provided for these schools were $125 per pupil less than the average budget for a white school in Boston. The School Committee refused to concede this point. As a result the NAACP fought back with the traditional methods of the civil rights movement: boycotts and protests. Almost as soon as this movement began a counter-revolution rose up against the desegregation of Boston's Schools.
Even as the School Committee denied any segregation in Boston they supported policies that increased racial imbalance in public schools. Rather than send white students to majority black schools, the Committee constructed portable classrooms at already overcrowded white schools. At South Boston High, an all-white school, enrollment was over the limit by 676 students during the 1971-72 school year. Girls High, 92% black, was under enrolled by 532 places. Boston's system of feeder schools was probably the most efficient method of segregation utilized by the Committee. Under this system graduates from middle schools (ending with grade 8) went to high schools with grades 9-12. Graduates from junior high schools (ending with grade 9) went to high schools with grades 10-12. Junior highs tended to be in white neighborhoods while middle schools tended to be in black neighborhoods. As if this system in itself was not enough to prove that segregation existed in Boston, the School Committee incriminated itself by converting two of the largest black junior highs in the city into middle schools for no practical reason. After a decade of protests and arguments and evasions by the Boston School Committee the issue finally came to a head with the 1972 court case.

...
Wikipedia