Remembering the Past and Contesting the Future of School Desegregation in Louisville, Kentucky, 1975–2012

This article examines memories of the long struggle for school desegregation in Louisville and Jefferson County, Kentucky, and considers the relationship between oral history and contemporary policy debates. It draws primarily on interviews conducted during a period when a series of legal challenges undermined and then overturned the local school desegregation plan. In addition to documenting the almost forgotten story of support for busing and its positive results between 1975 and 2007, the article emphasizes the ways in which narrators use their interviews to engage in the debate over the future of racial equality and diversity in the schools.