Legacy

Senatory Edward "Ted" Kennedy succumbed to brain cancer late last night at the age of 77 years, leaving behind a long, storied career in politics.

The list of accomplishments under his name would be so long that I'd have to dedicate a massive series of blog posts just to fully discuss them all, so I'll leave that to professional historians. One of the most notable accomplishments he will be remembered for is his work in civil rights, as theGrio notes.

However, there is one issue that is over-looked in that discussion and that is his stance on desegregation busing. Busing caused all sorts of problems most everywhere it was tried and took existing issues and served as a catalyst to make them major headaches. Many of the proponents of busing, Kennedy included, had children in private school where they would be unaffected by the decisions on busing.

This remains an issue as areas where busing was implemented saw fairly well-functioning school districts fall to pieces as those who could move out to avoid busing (whites) did so while those who couldn't (minorities) had to make do with whatever was left. Entire school districts were ruined by this policy. Prince George's County in Maryland was totally transformed by this change and now not only suffers from the problems in the school districts but also now has a crime rate higher than that of neighboring DC.

Now don't get me wrong: I did agree with some of Ted Kennedy's views. But let's not be so quick to make him a saint and a messiah, especially of race relations.