Chapter Three: Plan Z busing begins
Local protest of busing began ahead of the start of busing in Memphis City Schools as federal Judge Robert McRae moved closer to ordering specific plans for busing. A month before this mock funeral, the school system had submitted two sets of student assignments and busing routes to federal Judge Robert McRae as ordered by McRae in late 1971. (Courtesy Special Collections Department, University of Memphis Libraries)
The third chapter of The Daily Memphian’s oral history marking the 50th anniversary of busing in Memphis City Schools covers the arrival of Plan Z, the comprehensive plan to bus 39,000 children to racially integrate most of the city’s public schools.
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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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