In September 1974, just two days after her 14th birthday, Leola Hampton boarded a school bus that would launch her into the heart of one of the most divisive and defining moments in Boston history: court-ordered school desegregation.
Hampton and her older sister, Linda Stark, were bused from their home in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Roxbury into the white, working-class neighborhood of South Boston. They navigated a violent and virulently racist high school experience so scarring that a half-century later, they are only now beginning to discuss it with each other.
In a new documentary called “Never Cried”: Boston’s Busing Legacy, produced by GBH News’ Emily Judem and Stephanie Leydon, the sisters share their story.
