50 Years Ago, Busing Rocked East Boston. Two Best Friends Remember.

Growing up in East Boston, Robert Lewis Jr. and Sal LaMattina have been best friends since they were in the first grade. They both received an education of a lifetime when, in 1974, a federal court order forced the city to bus kids to different schools in the name of racial integration. Forced busing resulted in a racist backlash that tore their East Boston neighborhood apart. They remember it like it was yesterday: stabbings at school, a firebomb in the kitchen, and a community fractured. Lewis Jr. is now the CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Boston, and LaMattina served as a Boston city councilor for a decade in the 2000s. They discuss their memories on this 50th anniversary of busing - and their hopes for the next 50 years of public education in Boston. Email us at saymore@globe.com.

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For the Boston Globe’s newsroom audio documentary about busing, visit their show page: https://www.bostonglobe.com/multimedia/audio/podcast/globe-podcast/

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