Busing

Galen Martin, the executive director of the Kentucky Human Rights Commission, discusses the history of school desegregation in Louisville, Kentucky. Martin explains that he joined the commission in 1961 and had previously worked on school desegregation in Knoxville, Tennessee. He discusses the initial efforts to desegregate schools in Louisville in the 1950s, which were initially successful but later stalled. Martin criticizes the lack of teacher desegregation during this period. He also discusses the legal battles over school desegregation in the 1970s, including the role of the Kentucky Human Rights Commission in supporting a lawsuit that sought to merge the city and county school systems. Martin praises the leadership of Judge James F. Gordon in implementing a desegregation plan and criticizes local political leaders for not providing enough support. He also discusses the impact of desegregation on student achievement and housing patterns in Louisville.

An interview with Louisville politician Lois Morris.

Mrs. Morrison had a 25-year career in public education. She worked solely for Jefferson County, Kentucky school system. Mrs. Morrison spent 15 years in the classroom, five years as an instructional coordinator, and five years as a staff development specialist. She started teaching in 1961, twenty years after high school, after her children were in older. She taught chemistry and physics in Fern Creek High School. Morrison admits to "classroom burnout" and she was pleased to have a different position to move on to in 1975. She took a job as an instructional cooridnator and worked at Male High School, Central High School, and the Brown School. This position was part of a federally-funded program called the Emergency School Assistance Act. Her role was to work with students and teachers in a human relations capacity. Morrison recalls the challenges presented because of court-ordered busing and mergers of the city and and county school systems. For the latter 5 years of her career she worked in an administrative position as a staff development specialist; this position involved staff training in workshop and in-service settings.

Former Chief of Police of the city of Louisville remembers preparation of the city police force for school desegregation process and recounts law enforcement activities and incidents.

Esther Nochlin's teaching career spanned twenty-six years in the Louisville city/county school system. Mrs. Nochlin taught English at Booker T. Washington, Steven Foster, Warner, and Highland schools. She stresses that she always taught in inner city schools and that she liked that assignment. When asked about court-ordered busing and school system merger she stated little of no impact on her role as a teacher. She talks about the changing attitudes and lack of support from the home; she states that by the mid-1970s parents stopped backing teachers and she felt that teachers were losing authority. She discusses the various prinicpals she worked with, and offers her opinions of them. She speaks in favor of academic tracking, to help students get the help they need.

Howard Owens, born in 1948 in Pambloff, Arkansas, moved to Louisville because of his father's work as a preacher at the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church at age 5. In this interview, Owens talks about his father's work as a civil rights activist in the city prior to his own work during the 1960s following his graduation from high school as well as his work and activism during the civil rights movement from the end of the 1960s up until the 1980s. Topics include: the nationalist fringe groups participating in Louisville during the civil rights movement, his activism during college in Wilberforce, Ohio, his work as a teacher in Louisville with children with learning disabilities, the groups during the 1970s in Louisville including the Black Workers Coalition and Black Protective Parents, busing and the problems that faced busing within the communities and the city, other groups such as the Jtown Challengers and the Blacks United to Motivate Progress, his experience at a Klan rally that took place off of Preston Hwy, issues that arose after busing including police brutality and equity in hiring of minorities, the Alliance Against Racism and Political Oppression, the Fred Harris case, the Lindsay Scott case, and a case involving the Black Panther Party that all took place in Louisville.

An African American family discusses their experiences in living in the East End during integration years.

Mrs. Parker retired in May 1991 after twenty-seven years in public education. She was hired to teach in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1964, following college. She taught high school English and psychology for one year. She then moved to Jefferson County, where she taught junior high math for two years. Over the next twenty-four years she became a school counselor, and served at Stuart, Moore, Frost, Knight, and Highland schools. She talks about the changes she saw over her career. She speaks at length about the problems the schools had during the years following court-ordered busing and the merger of the city and county schools. She didn't feel prepared for the chaos and hostility and she spent much of her time resolving conflicts with students, teachers and parents. She also describes the change from junior high schools to middle schools, which gave the 6-8 grades an identity separate from the high schools, and promoted unity in the staff. She speaks of greater teacher involvement with all students, healthier holistic approaches, and identification of home problems in the new middle schools. In the last ten years of her career, Parker notes social phenomena and issues including "latchkey" children, single parent homes, dysfunctional families, and sex and drug abuse, which the schools were identifying. She saw her job change from administrator to facilitator between student, parent, teacher, and communtiy resource, a change she welcomed. Her greatest sense of accomplishment was working with "at risk" students.

Judge Peck, U. S. Court of Appeals, describes school segregation cases in the 6th Circuit Court from 1954, through the school desegregation suits of Jefferson County, 1975.

Suzanne "Suzy" Post, born in Louisville in 1933, was a mother of five living in the East End of Louisville when she began to be involved in the civil rights movement in Louisville. Post became active at a young age, choosing to do a project on the Louisville Urban League when in school and then joining the NAACP at Indiana University. In 1957, she joined the ACLU and then in 1969 became President of the Louisville ACLU before moving on to become a national Vice President for 12 years. She discusses in this interview her first memory of walking in a picket line, her time as a Jesse Jackson delegate in 1984, and her experience as a white woman in the movement. She discusses her involvement in fundraising for the open housing demonstrations as well as helping to find school board candidates for JCPS who were sympathetic to busing and getting them elected and educated. Post's involvement in the busing movement in Louisville was one that she discussed in length. In 1970 she worked as the President of an affiliate that worked to talk with communities and people within the community on the busing plans that they wanted to be implemented. Post discusses the first day that busing began as well as the atmosphere in the city and provides information on how she stayed active once busing had begun within Louisville.