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In this interview, Paula Fleming, the children’s librarian at the South Boston Branch Library of the Boston Public Library and a lifelong resident of South Boston, discusses the impact on her neighborhood of the 1974 Garrity decision, which required some students to be bused between Boston neighborhoods with the intention of creating racial balance in the public schools. Ms. Fleming reflects on the reactions of local children and parents to the Garrity decision; the effects that busing had on neighborhood dynamics and library patronage in South Boston; how the neighborhood has changed since the 1970s; and the media portrayals of South Boston.
