Thread by @mattdelmont

"Biden takes flak on race and busing. But his views may still mirror America’s" by @isaacstanbecker. This is a good piece that quotes historian Brett Gadsden, whose book "Between North and South" is the best place to start to understand Biden and "busing" washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06…

To understand the #DemDebate2 exchange between #KamalaHarris & Joe #Biden, you have to understand that "busing" has been used since the 50s as a code word to oppose school integration. I cover this history in "Why Busing Failed" & the book's website whybusingfailed.com/anvc/why-busin…

White parents in the North organized after Brown v Board to maintain segregated schools, using euphemisms like "busing" & "neighborhood schools" to maintain segregated schools without explicitly saying they didn't like black or Latinx students #DemDebate2 whybusingfailed.com/anvc/why-busin…

Northern politicians in 50s and 60s saw their white constituents raising hell to maintain segregated schools and intentionally wrote "antibusing" provisions into the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This "racial imbalance" loophole protected the North. #DemDebate2 whybusingfailed.com/anvc/why-busin…

Southern segregationists like James O. Eastland & John C. Stennis were
incensed by the blatant hypocrisy of the "antibusing" provision in the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the way the amendment so clearly catered to white northerners’ concerns #DemDebate2 whybusingfailed.com/anvc/why-busin…

Northern cities flouted federal civil rights policies and blocked "busing" in other ways. In 1965 HEW found Chicago in violation of Title VI of Civil Rights Act, but Chicago Mayor Daley pressed LBJ and federal officials to restore funding. #DemDebate2 whybusingfailed.com/anvc/why-busin…

Withholding federal funds is what finally pushed the South to comply with Brown v Board & doing the same in Chicago would have nat'l implications. The lesson related to #DemDebate2 is you can't separate the federal & local regarding "busing" - both set terms of possibility

"Anti-busing" rhetoric spiked in 1972, the year Biden started in the US Senate. White protestors like Irene McCabe received massive media coverage for defying court ordered school desegregation #DemDebate2 whybusingfailed.com/anvc/why-busin…

And, also in 1972, the Nixon administration called for Congress to pass a "busing" moratorium, reined in the Justice Department from enforcing desegregation order, and used TV addresses to set terms of "busing" debate #DemDebate2 whybusingfailed.com/anvc/why-busin…

So when Biden got to the Senate in 1972 he was building on 15+ years of white parents & politicians using "busing" to oppose school desegregation. Brett Gadsden's recent @politico article shows how Biden's views on "busing" were (& still are?) mainstream politico.com/magazine/story…