Rinku Sen

Everybody Get to the Back of the Bus

Check out this crazy story in the Shreveport Timesabout a school bus driver in Coushatta, Louisiana who "reserved" the seats at the front of the bus for white children and made 9 Black children give up those seats. The nine Black kids, ranging in age from five to 15, then had to share two seats at the back of the bus. The NAACP is considering filing charges with the Justice Department on behalf of the childrens' parents and guardians. So far the district's best solution has been to assign a Black bus driver to go across town to get the Black kids. Gives busing a whole new meaning. The NAACP will be searching for more insidious patterns of institutional racism that might be underlying this kind of blatant individual behavior, such as the ratio of Black and white teachers in relation to the kids of color. "If the smoke is there, then there's probably fire somewhere else," said NAACP district Vice President James Panell.

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Posted at 3:01 PM, Aug 24, 2006 in Civil Rights
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