Racial integration in schools

Several school districts around the country have had busing schemes in place to integrate previously racially segregated school districts. While the Denver Public Schools were court ordered to bus kids to different schools, other school districts had similar types of busing programs that while not mandated, allowed some students to attend schools that were considered “better” than their neighborhood schools. This often meant children ended up in schools which had a completely different racial make up than their neighborhoods. Tracey Jones now lives in Longmont, she spent her entire public school life at a predominately white school in Arlington Massachusetts. “I didn’t realize being brown was such a big deal until I got to Arlington.”

Tracey Jones grew up in Dorchester Massachusetts, in a predominately African American neighborhood.

“I grew up seeing all brown people in the stores, in the offices…everywhere.” Her parents got her into the METCO program which took children from the inner cities and bused them to suburban schools. “That’s where the journey began.”