The Rewind Episode 9: Ben takes us back to the beginnings of bussing in Boston in 1974

In 1974 I was a ninth grader in a junior high school in Newton, Massachusetts. I don't remember kids from Boston being bussed to my junior high, but I do remember that kids from Boston (I think Dorchester, but I'm not sure) were bussed to my high school. Looking at my 1976 high school yearbook, we had a black student union, which probably wouldn't have existed if it weren't for bussing. I had no way of knowing whether my school friends who were black lived in (mostly white) Newton or elsewhere. We were all just high school kids, and it didn't matter. I also had no idea at all that people were opposed to making it possible for schools in communities like mine to be integrated.

But looking through my yearbook with new eyes I can see that the sports teams and clubs in my high school had very few people of color. Maybe kids who rode the bus to school from Boston did not have the opportunity to participate in extra curricular activities, since they had to take a bus home at the end of the school day. There was public transportation, but it was a good 30 minute walk (a mile and a half) to get to the T station, and at least a 30 minute ride to get to Boston.

I am dismayed to see that there was only one person of color on the faculty of my high school (she taught social studies, but I never had her as a teacher). There were also two guidance councilors (one male and one female), and one custodian.