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50 years after busing began, the area’s early school integration efforts are still shaping modern Memphis

By , Daily Memphian Updated: September 26, 2023 12:30 PM CT | Published: August 25, 2023 4:00 AM CT

Half a century ago this month, 39,000 Memphis children — about a third of the then-Memphis City Schools system — were told to board school buses and continue their education at new schools in an effort to racially integrate them.

Related story: 

Chapter One: Before the buses

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Bill Dries

Bill Dries

Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.


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