ABSTRACT

Bay City was the first large city in the United States to outlaw school segregation (in 1855). Today it has one of the most highly integrated school systems of any city its size. Unlike St. Louis and Lawndale, the Negro population is relatively small (10 per cent of the population). Students attend school outside of this small ghetto under an open-transfer policy. Less than one-half of Bay City’s Negro students attend segregated schools. In addition, the remnants of abolitionist sentiment are still visible in New England politics.