[In support of option one, "Just Do It."]

I think that we should "just do it" because this plan will ensure that the schools no longer are segregated. Many people are afraid to go to schools where people are unlike them. Young students would want to be with their friends and parents would be scared to send their children to different schools because of fear for their childs safety. In order to "just do it" we must send buses to different comunities and take (the bus of racially mixed students) to a school where they all would attend. This will make sure the school become more diverse.

[In support of Option 2: "Don't Sacrifice the Kids"]

Some might say that by starting with kids via busing is the best solution to integrate schools because they are the future, and they have to deal with this situation and adapt to this new environment. But isn’t the truth that kids would see the parent’s actions and would learn to imitate them. How would then “white” kids forget the [alleged] superiority shown by parents over colored people? How would “Black” kids forget their fears of being threatened by whites? We’ll create problems in schools because of two “races” [human subspecies don’t exist] are not used to be together in a place where every one is equal. This is not a good environment for children to learn, which should be our main priority.

Busing can be expensive and the money will come by taxes. It will be cheaper to begin by integrating our communities in a gradual way. Stopping realtors from steering “White people into White areas and people of color into African American or Latino areas.” Interacting in our community with neighbors in an “integrated” community will show kids that we can live in peaceful place. Integrated communities will then have integrated schools because the make up of the population that attends a school is base on the population of communities.

[In support of Option 2: Don't Sacrifice the Kids]

I think they shouldn't have started with the kids because forcing kids to go to a school where they don't know anyone or don't have any friend to hang out or play with is wrong. i think they should have started integrating the community first before starting with the kids.

[In support of Option 2: Don't Sacrifice the Kids]

They shouldn't start with the kids, because the kids don't choose where they want to live. Their parents do. So if we help the parent to get along so would the kids.

I think they shouldn't start with the kids because habits and learing starts at home. If kids don't start to get to know different people by living with them. They wouldn't be able to be comfortable or aquainted anywhere else. And it will be harder for the Government to start in school. Because parents don't get along their children wont get along.
Kids don't start school when they are immedatly born, so if they live in a place full of different people, as they grow up, as they go to school, they tends to get used to different people and it wouldn't be diffcult for them to learn together. We interviewed this man whose mom saw an ad saying "freedom of choice" is this a plan that let you choose any school you want to go to" Okay this boy went to the school but he felt so isolated and alone because this school was an all white school, he felt like that, because he wasn't use to white people as neighboors so he wasn't use to them at school and there fore he uncomfortable. And if you say people have the right to choose what school they wanted back then school will still be segregated no body will move or act on it maybe a few but not a lot and that is not good enough it will remain segregated. But if they start with where they live, it will be easier on the kids at school.

Ask yourselves "why start all this with children?" You must be asking yourselves what I'm taking about. Well I'm talking about segragation and desegragation. Why make kids go thuogh all these troubles just to get a good a education? Why couldn't families just move to other communities to make them less segragated? Children suffer most of all in this plan called "busing". If black and white adults can't stand each other, then why do their children have to be insolted and humilated and brought down by others? What was the point of children crying at night, every tear coming down from their eyes, fearing that something bad might happen, When today in the "Modern World" segragation still exist. Why couldn't parents fight for the rights of their children and families in the first place? Close your eyes and imagine the fear of a child in his or her eyes entering a new school they don't even know and were no one wants them.

[In support of Option 2: Don't Sacrifice the Kids.]

In the 1950's, when the Brown vs. the Bd of Education case was decided, the USA was a very segregated place. People of different races not only did not go to school together, they also were not allowed to eat at the same lunch counters, drink from the same drinking fountains, or live in the same neighborhoods. It was a system created and supported at the highest levels of government and business. In order to have so-called equal schools, and equal opportunties throughout the society, many institutions needed to be thoroughly overhauled to eliminate the principles and practices of white supremacy and privilege. Making young kids--who were the victims of that system and the least powerful people in it--become the agents of change and force integration with their bodies--making them face the wrath and hostility of adults-- making them suffer abuse from teachers, police, parents and other children--is cruel and unworkable in the long run. Changing only schools and not housing patterns and the systems in neighborhoods that support and reinforce racial segregation, cannot work and will only result, years leater, in a more entrenched and more rigidly segregated society, along race, class and ethnicity--which we in fact have....

[In support of Option 3: Freedom of Choice]

The reason why I chose the topic "Choice" is because I believe that everyone deserves to choose, where they want to go. Having the freedom of choice is one of the best things that humanity has ever experienced. I believe people will make a move because they feel comfortable or see something positive from that certain new place. Choice is one part of equality and freedom, and every human needs to have it, and at least experience it.

[In support of Option 3: Freedom of Choice]

If you want to go to any school you should be able to do so . Some schools offer classes that may interest you, with this plan you are able to chase your dreams. Also you can not force someone to be friends with someone else. Letting nature take it's course may have an intergrated outcome.

THANK YOU for putting this web site together!!! As a class of '71 graduate (a white woman who had black, white and asian friends at the school), this has been enlightening and nostalgic. This type of discussion has been needed for a long time. The project shows abundant forethought, hard work, creativity and inquiry. It should be an effective instrument to connect people and get them talking about the isasues of desegregation. Bravo!

The point that grabbed me the most was the description of the sit in in '70. I well remember that day. When Principal Reed's announcement came over the loudspeaker, I feared for my black friends. That man was scared and who knew what he would do! (As we know now, he called in the Guard.)I was in my English class and the teacher, Ms. Sharon Boughton, after listening to the announcement, walked to the door and threw it wide open - the opposite of what the principal had asked. She said our door was open for any student who needed to come in and she wasn't going to shut us up.

A note on Principal Reed - I was one of the students who ran a news and commentary program over the loudspeakers every morning before school. As a person who wrote commentary, I had to have every piece read and edited (censored) by the principal before it aired. He was a frightened man, afraid to let anything too radical on the air, be it about race or politics. The last piece I ever read, I read as it was edited, leaving out everything that had been red-inked. It literally made no sense, having been so thoroughly censored.

I found your web page when looking for old year books. I was in jr. high when the schools were first intergrated. This was accomplished by people moving to the area, not by busing. I was friends with one of the first black males in Northwestern High School. I never saw any negative statements or actions made against him. He joined clubs that I did and got along fine. (He died faily young several years after high school). I grew up in PG county. When I got married and had a family, I still lived in that county. The thing that destroyed the county was busing. I lived one block from an elementary school. My sons walked
there for about 2 years before busing. At this point, they drove over an hour to go to a school on the district line. The area was a high crime area. Kids were pulling knives on second and third graders. The teachers were not very good. They couldn't spell!

This started people moving further out in the country or to Montgomery county. In only a few years, a busload of black kids would get on a bus to go to another school and their bus of black kids would go to our school. This was not desegration, this was just playing games. The county went from having one of the finest records in education to one that rivaled the District of columbia in trouble, low test scores and dropouts.

It was a stupid experiment and has failed every time it is tried. People move to areas because they can afford it or because of the schools. If there is no reason to support your local schools, why do it for people you don't even know.

I moved to California and gave up on Maryland and especailly PG county. The only time I hear of it is related to some crime story.

I am a white male student who just recently from Northwestern High School in the class of 2003. There are many profound implications with the whole desegregation debacle in Prince George's County.

My first year at Northwestern High School was my sophomore year. I went to Eleanor Roosevelt High School during my freshman year, because legend had it that it was a "good" school. Overall I have had a great time at Northwestern High School, and I am currently a freshman at The Ohio State University. During my years at NHS, I worked hard at trying to convince white students who lived in the attendance area to go to Northwestern instead of Roosevelt or a private school. I think it is important that members of the community have a stake in the school, especially by having their kids attend school there. Northwestern High School happens to reside in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the state, let alone Prince George's County. Some of the kids in this neighborhood go to Northwestern, some don't. A major problem is apathy of residents in this community about the school.

I blame both black and white people as a whole in what has happened in Prince George's County. White people have proven their stereotype of greediness by moving out of the County just to not live near black people, and some black people haven't been very hospitable to whites in mostly black schools. The only way the racial issue can be resolved is for both white and black people to make amends.

The major problem I see in Prince George's County schools is the reputation of a "bad" education, while in all actuality the education provided is superb. The news media through yellow journalism has mis-labeled Prince George's County. Also, ignorant whites in other counties through word of mouth have badmouthed Prince George's County, by saying things such as "there's no white people there". How surprised they are when I inform them that there are more whites in Prince George's County than in Calvert County!

One last issue I want to confront is individuals at the schools thinking they deserve less than standard. One of the things I fought at Northwestern was the attitude that we couldn't have a good yearbook, athletic teams, special events, and other extra-curricular activities because of lack of parental support. This was just a cheap excuse so some students and school faculty wouldn't feel compelled to do the work necessary to make these things happen. My solution is for people at the school: students, staff, and parents; to internalize that Northwestern deserves everything just as good as Gaithersburg, or any other High School.

In conclusion, white and black people need to work to make things be and appear better. Whites need to be convinced not to go to private schools or leave the county. Blacks need to feel they deserve everything just as much as a mostly white school. Everyone needs to not think of our schools as any less than schools in other counties, and we need to have EVERYTHING they have to back it up. Also, everyone needs to fight the media bias against Prince George's County schools. Once this happens, race will no longer be an issue.

I was reminded of my experience with forced integration when I saw, a Channel eight Black History Month program which highlighted bussing in PG County. In 1973, when bussing began, I was a junior at Crossland Sr. High School. My racist, white, father was up in arms but at the time, most white middle-class students took it in stride.

There was a group of less enlightened bussed-in blacks and local white kids who started -what I would call- race riots, but that was short lived. I remember that many bussed-in black kids exhibited the highest standard of classroom behavior and performance, some of who put us to shame!

I also have fond memories of the bussing experience, having made friends with some of the new students. I have one funny story to tell: Because Palmer High School (a Central Avenue area high school) was predominately black we received a large number of black students from that school. However, they inadvertently shipped a white student called Dale from Palmer to Crossland, a majority white school. He tried hard to get sent back to his majority black school but the educational bureaucracy instead forced him to be bussed to Crossland, where he eventually graduated. To this day, Dale’s story still doesn’t make any sense.

Note: This project was completed in 2003 for a different website and then moved here in May 2005. The comments were contributed between 2003 and 2005. The dates shown here are not accurate.

This was very interesting to read. I am a life-long resident of PG county, and a white male that graduated from Central High School, in Seat Pleasant, MD. I was one of 68 white students in a school of a little under 1,000.

My neighborhood school was Parkdale, but during my HS years (1996-2000) I was used to being bused all across the county (for TAG magnet programs at Capitol Heights Elem and Kenmoor Middle School), and opted to go to Central.

Minor racial issues in terms of a few 'white boys' but mostly just jokes, and more often than not, I was priveleged by being not only white, but an IB student, and an athlete. I was able to roam the halls with less grief from faculty and it was often assumed I was going somewhere or doing something.

One of the more interesting experiences I can remember from HS was during my Junior year, a school from Howard County came to play a playoff basketball game in our gym. The look of absolute fear and disgust on the parents and traveling fans from the team are still ingrained in my memory today. They even had the nerve to ask me after the game how I 'survived'.

As a senior at UMCP, I often hear PG referred to as a 'ghetto' or a 'slum'. And it sickens me. White kids, coming from White areas of Maryland, or Pennsylvania, NJ, or NY, come to my school in my county to simply mock and ridicule the area. We have a long way to go, and with the recent repeal of busing and returning to neighborhood schools, I am not sure what the future holds.

I think that they should not start with the kids because kids are harsh and cruel to quick change. It would have been really hard on blacks to take that kind of criticism at a young age, and white parents were used to teaching there children not to have anything to do with blacks. It should have started with adults first.