A man whose challenge to the notion of segregated public schools helped spark the use of busing to integrate schools has died at his Virginia home.
The Rev. Darius L. Swann was 95. Swann's wife, Vera, said her husband died on March 8 of pneumonia.
His lawsuit filed against the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education in 1965, stemmed from his efforts to enroll his son in a predominantly white school closer to their home instead of a predominantly African American school further away.
In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld court-ordered busing in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district, clearing the way for the use of busing as a means of desegregation.
