![]() Board decision, which loosely fits with Harris’ statement of "almost two decades after Brown v. Altogether, that’s about 16 years after the Brown v. She had attended a private school for kindergarten the year before. And she joined a group that had started kindergarten the following year in 1969 and so her description is correct."Ī spokesman for the senator’s campaign told us Harris joined the second class to integrate in first grade in 1970. "She would be part of that second class that integrated our schools through our two-way busing program," Beery added. ![]() She said Harris attended Thousand Oaks Elementary school, on the city’s northeast side. Natasha Beery, director of community relations at Berkeley Unified School District, told us Harris’ claim was "absolutely" accurate. Kamala Harris was part of one of the first classes to integrate Berkeley, Calif., elementary schools through a pioneering busing program that started in 1968. Kamala Harris (left) in 1970 with her sister, Maya Harris, and mother, Shyamala Gopalan. Meanwhile, children from the hills were bused to schools in the more diverse neighborhoods. Harris was three years old when Berkeley Unified’s school board voted in January 1968 to desegregate the district’s elementary schools, starting that fall, through a unique two-way busing program.Ĭhildren from the city’s more diverse western neighborhoods were bused to elementary schools in Berkeley’s eastern hills, a more affluent and whiter area. She grew up in a black middle-class neighborhood in west Berkeley. To examine Harris’ statement, we spoke with officials from Berkeley Unified School District, a historian who studied the city’s busing integration program, reviewed news articles and Harris’ biography. Given the attention on this topic, we wanted to know whether Harris’ "second class to integrate" claim was biographical fact or fiction. Supreme Court ruling that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Harris referred to the landmark 1954 U.S. "I was part of the second class to integrate Berkeley, California, public schools almost two decades after Brown v. ![]() ![]() "There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. Harris, 54, repeated her statement twice during her exchange with Biden, right after pointing out that he opposed busing. Some on social media have questioned her claim’s accuracy. Kamala Harris won a breakout moment in last week’s Democratic presidential debate when she attacked Joe Biden’s record opposing busing to desegregate schools in the 1970s.īut her critique of the former vice president also placed a spotlight on her claim that she was "part of the second class to integrate her public schools" through a busing program in Berkeley. ![]()
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