Tightening the Belt
Keyword(s):
This chapter places the debates over voluntary integration within the context of the Boston busing crisis and the national recession. Explorations of the dramatic events that surrounded the Boston busing crisis have often focused on the ways in which “suburban liberals” passively stood by as working-class whites and blacks in the city endured the burden of school integration. However, the residents along Boston's Route 128 belt were not as removed from the events and issues as those depictions might suggest. The discussion about METCO during this period of turmoil illuminates how the various forces of suburban politics influenced the remedies to school desegregation and racial and economic inequality.