City Buses in Lieu of School Buses: A Modern Color Line

• In Event: Racialized Consequences of Discipline, Surveillance, Violence, and Out-of-School Environment

Abstract

“The color line” is a phrase that originally referenced segregation following the American Civil War, and the phrase is still used to reference both modern and sustained patterns of racial discrimination. Color lines exist in many forms, and one way we see this struggle is through the use of mass transit for school transportation. Our research therefore focuses on a disinvested, urban, high-poverty, school district which is the only school district in Maryland where the students take public transportation to and from school. We interviewed 133 of these students and analyzed their stories. Our findings suggest that students witnessed fighting, drug addicts dying, and other traumatic events while trying to get to school which impacts their educational functioning.

Authors

• Richard Lofton, Johns Hopkins University

• Justin Hill, Johns Hopkins University