Truth—and Shame —about Busing

Fur years ago, when he wrote on busing for Dissent, William Taylor cited as evidence for blacks still wanting integration the loud cheers with which an audience of black educators and leaders greeted a statement by Derrick Bell, a black professor of law at Harvard. “The right of black children to attend integrated public schools. . . .,” Bell said, “is a right that is crucial not only to black success but to black survival in this country.”

So much for ringing declarations! Whatever his audience may think these days, Derrick Bell has changed his views. This change should dismay anyone who shared the liberal jubilation back in 1954 when the Supreme Court, in the Brown decision, seemed at la...