Voting, Drinking, and Busing

The 26th Amendment only gave 18 years olds the right to vote, it did not address other issues like drinking and owning property. Shortly afterwards, Michigan voted to make 18 the age of majority, which gave 18 year olds all the same rights that were previously reserved for 21 year olds. A few years later, Michigan voted to pull the drinking age out of the package and put it back to 21. (I voted against that one.) Previously, the age of majority in most states had been 21. The only exceptions I remember were Alaska where it was 19, and Hawaii where it was 20. People had been talking about making 18 the voting age for a long time, but the Vietnam War gave it the push that it needed to finally pass. There must have been bi-partisan support for this because it takes a 2/3 majority of congress to propose a constitutional amendment.

I was gone from Chicago before the integration controversy broke upon it, but I did read and hear about it some. I don't think that Chicago ever had any segregation laws, so I didn't understand what the fuss was all about. The schools were segregated de facto because the neighborhoods were, and everybody went to school in their own neighborhoods. The only reason the neighborhoods were segregated was that, as soon as a few Black people moved in, all the White people moved out. There was no law that prevented the Blacks from moving in, and there was no law forcing the Whites to move out, it was just social custom.

I remember reading something where the NAACP or somebody demanded to know how many Blacks and Whites were in each school. That information was not available because nothing in any of the school records made any mention of the race of the students, so they had people stand outside the schools when the students were dismissed for the day and count them as they came out the door. To the surprise of no one, the schools in Black neighborhoods had mostly Black students, and the schools in the White neighborhoods had mostly White students. To remedy this, a court order was obtained requiring kids to be bused to and from schools that were not in their neighborhood. I also seem to remember something called "cross district busing", where kids from the suburbs were bused into the city and vice versa, but I don't remember if that was in Chicago or some other city. Not long ago, I asked you how that busing thing worked out, and you said that they stopped doing it after awhile because it proved to be more trouble than it was worth. Since the busing was mandated by a court order, I assume that they got another court order rescinding the previous order.

I remember about the White backlash, but I thought the Whites must have lost the battle because the Blacks eventually got everything they asked for. Of course they aren't economically or socially equal, but nobody else is either. They are equal under the law, which is all that could be expected. No amount of legislation is ever going to make somebody like somebody else. The government can tinker with the economy, but they can't absolutely control it because there are too many variables. The economy, like the weather, seems to have a mind of its own.

I think we should both get the book. If we each have our own copy, we will be better able to discuss it. I don't have an account with Amazon, but I don't imagine it's difficult to establish one. I probably won't get around to it till this weekend.