Racial Tensions Flare in Raleigh Over New Busing System Leading to Resegregation, 19 Arrested

Racial tensions flare in Raleigh, NC, over new school busing system that protesters feel would lead to resegregation.

While Andrew Breitbart & Fox News twisted facts and sparked the controversy surrounding former USDA official Shirley Sherrod, protesters and police scuffled Tuesday at a school board meeting in North Carolina over claims that a new busing system would resegregate schools. Yes, it sparked tensions eerily reminiscent of the unrest in the 1960s. Rev. William Barber, head of the state NAACP chapter, was arrested outside the Wake County Schools administration building in Raleigh during a during a rally to protest the school board decision to eliminate a busing policy focused on diversity, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Nineteen people were arrested, including the head of state NAACP chapter who was banned from the meeting after a trespassing arrest at a June school board gathering.

The Wake County School Board has voted multiple times over the last several months to scrap the district's diversity policy, which distributed students based on socioeconomics and for years had been a model for other districts looking to balance diversity in schools. Several school board members elected last year have built a majority in favor of focusing on neighborhood schools. Source

Surely there must be a better way to let our voices be heard instead of having a scuffle with the police. I understand that tensions were high and many protesters perceived this proposal was a throwback to the 1960s, but we can't solve any problems by being angry.