Last fall, Ginnette Powell traveled from her home in Boston’s Dorchester section to her old middle school in South Boston — a journey of just two miles, but one that covered a huge emotional distance. Finally, she was able to leave the painful past behind.

Powell endured the explosive battle over desegregation in Boston in the 1970s. Tears come to her eyes when she talks about how it took her decades to return to the place where she never felt safe as an African-American seventh-grader.

“It was scary because of what you were going into, getting bricks thrown at your bus. I remember the bus windows being broken,” said Powell, now 48.

Nearly four decades later, Powell’s native city also is still working to move forward from the legacy of the school busing crisis. Last year, Mayor Thomas Menino created an advisory group whose aim was to work toward putting students back in neighborhood schools. And last month, school officials agreed to do away with the last vestiges of the desegregation-based school assignment system, beginning in 2014.

But raw feelings remain from that divisive time. And to explore and mend the divisions, the nonprofit Union of Minority Neighborhoods has been holding public story circles across Boston where participants like Powell can open up about their own experiences.

Organizers hope the airing of voices will help people of different races and economic classes learn from the city’s busing past so they can fight together for access to quality schools for all students. Project director Donna Bivens said the exercises are designed to be about listening and discussing, but not judging each other’s stories.

“I think that we can’t move forward, looking at how to improve our schools and access to our schools without looking at how the past impacted the present,” said Elaine Ng, executive director of the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, which hosted the story circle where Powell described her visit back to her old school.

As the daughter of Chinese immigrants, Ng learned to speak English as a kindergarten student in a Boston public school. But after her family moved from Chinatown to a white neighborhood in 1976, students threw stones at her when she walked to school. Ng said one of her frustrations is that people don’t recognize all the ripple effects busing had.

“It didn’t matter whether or not you were on …read more

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