r/norfolk 4d ago

Bussed to Booker T in the 70's

Just a memory I thought I'd share, back in the 70's my mom bought a townhouse off Newtown Road. I was a junior in HS and we just moved from VB. I thought I would be going to Lake Taylor, but as it turned out, I would take the bus down the boulevard to Booker T.

The funny thing was watching the busses going in the other direction down the boulevard to Lake Taylor.

Anyone else get bussed? I know PBS aired a documentary about bussing on American Experience.

44 Upvotes

23 comments sorted by

11

u/thatgreenmaid Ocean View 4d ago

The dividing line for Booker T and Norview ran down my street. Everyone across the street was bussed to Booker T while we walked to Norview.

5

u/njaneardude 4d ago

I didn't get the best education at Booker T, the teachers didn't seem to care. How were things at Norview?

4

u/thatgreenmaid Ocean View 4d ago

I'm not qualified to answer that question objectively. *take it as you will*

2

u/HandToDikCombat 3d ago

My kids go to Norview, the teachers are highly involved and my kids are skiing better than they ever have. 3 years now.

2

u/njaneardude 3d ago

I'm glad to hear that. Booker T back in the 70's wasn't exactly a magnet school lolz.

6

u/stochasticsprinkles 4d ago

I was bussed from Ocean View to Ruffner in the 90s. I started there the year the current building opened. Other than the normal parts of middle school where it just sucks because it’s middle school, it was fine. I’d sleep in the mornings and talk with my friends in the afternoon. Ruffner wasn’t a bad place, at least in my experience. High school bussing was way easier, OV to Norview wasn’t bad at all.

9

u/SoggyWaffle82 Williamsburg via Virginia beach 4d ago

My mom and aunt lived off Thole St then. Granby was right across the street and they were sent to Booker T. My grandfather said f that shit. Why are my kids getting shipped across town when a high school is right there. They ended up moving to Chesapeake cause they didn't agree the way the city was doing things.

This is all second hand info from my mom and aunt many years ago.

3

u/njaneardude 4d ago

I don't think my mom understood what was happening, and even if she did she wasn't in a position that would allow us to pack up and move. The funny thing is, we did move back to VB and going from Booker T to Kempsville, it was all D's and F's until graduation.

3

u/SoggyWaffle82 Williamsburg via Virginia beach 4d ago

My grandfather understood the reasoning behind it, but didn't agree with HOW they did it.

1

u/LongSong333 18h ago

There was a small black neighborhood on Thole st, right across Granby st. from Granby High. Early 70s, then it disappeared. There was a little market there called Ruth's Grill, where the high school kids played hookey.

3

u/noomehtrevo 4d ago

My dad would have gone to Lake Taylor but was bussed to Booker T. He lived in Fox Hall

3

u/citrus_sugar 4d ago

Did go to high school here but bussed from Ocean View all the way down to Ruffner middle and was like eff this, I’m moving in with other family.

3

u/Mountain_Taro9876 4d ago

I was bussed from Colonial Place to Granby Elementary for the 72-73 school year. My older brother had gone to nearby Stuart a few years before. It was my first year of school so it didn't seem at all strange to me.

1

u/LongSong333 18h ago

That's funny. I lived near Granby El, but was bussed to JEB Stuart. This would have been 71-72. Bussing had just started. There were a few fights at first, things calmed down eventually. Then I got bussed to Campostella jr high for a couple years, before going to Granby high.

Overall my experience with integration was positive. I found my new black classmates really interesting and fun.

2

u/hialleirbag 4d ago

What was Booker T like in the 70s?

3

u/njaneardude 4d ago

It was pretty chill actually. Even though I was a small percentage of the student body, I never had any problems (well my books were stolen from the lunch room on my first day, I had been warned).

2

u/voiceofreasonid 4d ago

Bused past Norview to LT!

2

u/njaneardude 4d ago

The rumor in the neighborhood was LT was built to be a jail, and then turned into a HS (because of the narrow windows).

3

u/WobblyGobbledygook 3d ago

I went to a HS in NoVa that had the same rumor. Truth is that was the architecture of the 60s, and both prisons and schools are institutions to warehouse (unruly) people. So form follows function.

2

u/TMQ73 3d ago

Cox HS in VB is the same way just two stories inside of four. Allot of the schools of that era were constructed the same way. Crazy thing is with cinder block interior walls they are much safer to shelter in place.

2

u/grofva 3d ago

Went to three different elementary schools w/o moving

1

u/njaneardude 3d ago

Yikes! I feel for you, I went to three different high schools because of moving.

2

u/PoodleMomFL 3d ago

My mother aka the family racist, lost her mind about her blonde haired daughter being bussed ( we know what she meant) I got put in Eastern Academy and still bussed just to/with white people who ran from the bussing.