Is Segregation Back in U.S. Public Schools? (At least in Charlotte, NC, from 1980-1983, for one student there, it was worth the commute)

Worth the Commute

Page Leggett is a writer and communications consultant in Charlotte, N.C.

UPDATED MAY 21, 2012, 11:25 AM

I thought life would be like West Charlotte High School.

It hasn’t been, which makes me exceedingly grateful for the three years — 1980 to 1983 — I spent at a fully integrated high school in an all-black neighborhood in Charlotte, N.C. I could have walked to Myers Park High, located in my own upscale neighborhood, but instead the bus came before sunrise to take me on an hour-long ride to the other side of town — in every sense of the phrase.

My parents’ belief in public education was tested when I was in elementary school and the Supreme Court (Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 1971) upheld a lower court decision to use busing to achieve school desegregation.

We weren’t just being educated in the classroom. We were learning how to be citizens of the world.

West Charlotte was a shock to my sensibilities. These kids who lived across town were like me in every way except for skin color. We became friends. And not just school friends. We went to each other’s houses on weekends. We talked openly about race without fear of offending each other. We were learning how to be citizens of the world.

The teachers and staff at West Charlotte went to extraordinary lengths to ensure equality. We had a black and white homecoming queen. When "The King and I" was performed, there was a black Yul Brynner and a white Deborah Kerr one night, and the reverse the following night.

Many of us who were bused to West Charlotte feel like it was one of the luckiest experiences of our lives. That was before the 1999 decision that reversed the historic Swann case and led to a resegregated West Charlotte, plummeting graduation rates and soaring free lunch and drop-out rates.

Until life is like West Charlotte was in its heyday, children from different backgrounds need to be brought together to learn — and to learn about life. Even if it takes a cross-town bus to get them there.