Freedom North

Hence black students were not being provided with the necessary tools to compete with a well educated white peer for a job. .
             The fight for desegregation was exceptionally difficult because of the widespread view that segregation was de facto in the North and de jure in the South. Therefore Northern politicians were exceedingly hesitant to support any efforts toward equalizing educational opportunities for black students. Several whites were against using school funds to bus black students to schools with open seats thus making it virtually impossible for black students to participate in the open enrollment program. .
             On June 21, 1974, Federal Judge W. Arthur Garrity made the Boston School Committee begin desegregation. This decision incensed many white families and students and consequently resulted in the occurrence of a great deal of riots. The media chose to mainly portray the whites who were against busing and integration and downplayed the pro-desegregation movement. Therefore one can argue that Boston simultaneously took a step back while taking a step forward.
             Felicia Kornbluh's Black Buying Power: Welfare Rights, Consumerism, and Northern Protest demonstrates how the women's grassroots activism in the South heavily impacted a vast majority of underprivileged black women who were involved in the fight for welfare rights in the North. The National Welfare Rights Organization barely received support from black churches in their endeavor to ensure that all citizens would be guaranteed an income from the national government that would allow them to live under decent conditions if their income level became too low. They also attempted to get private retailers like Sears, which was anti-union and resistant to grassroots pressure, to give credit to lower income people. "A list of proposed slogans for the Sears campaign included: "The Rich get cash & credit at least give the poor credit"; "How Many credit Cards do you have? We only want ONE[,] a SEARS credit card for all poor people"; and "Give us Credit for Being American.