Current Events
What Events Have Contributed to the Recognition of School Segregation in the Previous Years?
School segregation was a major topic in the second half of the 20th century. However, as we entered the 21st century, many people stopped regarding school segregation as a real issue. Then, many events occurred in the previous years that the public realized school segregation is still an alarming issue in our society. Two of those events were the June 2019 Democratic Presidential Debate, and many urban cities around the country reporting an increase in residential segregation in the previous years.

Democratic Presidential Debate June 2019
Current Events Audio Transcript:
June 27, 2019- Night two of the Democratic Presidential Debate held in Miami, Florida. That debate sparked the topic of school segregation among the public once again. It all started when California Senator Kamala Harris stated, "There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. That little girl was me." That statement was targeted at Joe Biden, the Democratic front-runner at that time. Joe Biden was one of the many political leaders in the 1970s who opposed busing and voted to cut federal funding on busing. In an interview by the government in the 1970s, Biden had said "The new integration plans being offered are really just quota systems to assure a certain number of blacks, Latinos, or whatever in each school. That, to me, is the most racist concept you come up with" (Rizzo 19). When asked after the debate about his position on busing and school segregation, Joe Biden claimed he only opposed forced busing and he had no opposition on voluntary busing programs, according to the Washington Post (Rizzo 19). Biden's spokesmen also reported to the Washington Post "he never thought busing was the best way to integrate schools in Delaware - a position which most people now agree with" (Rizzo 19). This encounter between the two democratic presidential candidates, not only overpowered the country, but it also revealed the severity of school segregation to the public once again. That same day, Kamala Harris tweeted a picture of her young self with the caption "There was a little girl in California who was bused to school. That little girl was me," the same statement she had said during the Democratic Presidential Debate. Her statement also assured that her attack on Democratic Front Runner, Joe Biden, was planned (Delmont 19). However, as these two cleared their point of view on school segregation and busing, Americans realized segregation in schools is still an existing issue that has been hidden by political leaders of both parties (Rizzo 19). Today, I speak about this issue to spread awareness among the youngsters, not only in America but around the world. You are the future and you have the power to combat school segregation more than anyone else. Sign the petition today to integrate our schools all across the country at <https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/ integrateus-end-school-segregation-support-integrateus-and-sign-our-constitution> so we don't need more events like this in the future to remind us of the severity of school segregation and so the people who have fallen prey to this issue receive the education they deserve.
Residential Segregation
Residential Segregation: a topic that is undermined by many people across the country. In the previous years, residential segregation has increased at a spiking rate around the nation, and, according to a study done by Economic Policy Institute, cities that have high residential segregation have also reported high cases of school segregation. Residential segregation causes minorities to live in the same area/neighborhood and their children attend the same school and there is no racial diversity in those schools and those schools receive very few facilities. In these few years, as residential segregation has come to light, school segregation has also been unveiled in certain parts of the nation to a higher extent.

Works Cited For Presidential Debate Audio
Delmont, Matthew. "There's a Generational Shift in the Debate Over Busing." The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 1 July 2019, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/kamala-harris-and-busing-debate/593047/.
MCCLENDON, McKee J., and Fred P. PESTELLO. "WHITE OPPOSITION: TO BUSING OR TO DESEGREGATION?" Social Science Quarterly, vol. 63, no. 1, 1982, pp. 70-82. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42861379. Accessed 25 Apr. 2020.
Rizzo, Salvador. "Analysis | The School Busing Debate between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris." The Washington Post, WP Company, 29 July 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/29/school-busing-debate-between-joe-biden-kamala-harris/.
Works Cited For The Connection Between Residential And School Segregation Poster:
Jeffries, Hasan, and Patrick Jones. "Desegregating New York: The Case of the 'Harlem Nine.'" Www.jstor.org, OAH Magazine of History, 2012, www.jstor.org/stable/23209974?
Rothstein, Richard. "The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods: A Constitutional Insult." Race and Social Problems, vol. 7, no. 1, 2014, pp. 21-30., doi:10.1007/s12552-014-9134-1.