The Legacy of Forced Busing in Boston Series: COVER STORY

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TWENTY years ago this month, Boston students began a school year they will never forget.

Amid violent protests, boycotts, and rallies, young people across the city rode yellow buses to school as the rest of the nation watched. It was a time of racial turmoil for Boston, a Northern liberal city that once played a key role in the abolitionist movement.

That was back in September 1974, when public-school students experienced their first days of court-ordered desegregation. Of the system's 80,000 students, 17,000 to 18,000 were bused to other parts of the city as part of a desegregation plan ordered by United States District Court Judge W. Arthur Garrity …