He concluded: “I do not buy the concept, popular in the ’60s, which said, ‘We have suppressed the black man for 300 years and the white man is now far ahead in the race for everything our society offers. In order to even the score, we must now give the black man a head start, or even hold the white man back, to even the race.’”

More anti-busing legislation

Mr. Biden introduced another proposal in 1976 that blocked the Justice Department from seeking busing as a desegregation tool, and co-sponsored an amendment in 1977 that limited federal funding of busing efforts. He continued his efforts that year with a bill curbing court-ordered busing.

In February 1982, he voted for an amendment to a Justice Department appropriations bill described as the “toughest anti-busing rider ever approved by either chamber of Congress.” A month later, he voted in favor of another amendment that allowed the Justice Department to participate in litigation “to remove or reduce the requirement of busing in existing court decrees or judgments.”

A spokesman for Mr. Biden recently told The New York Times that he had always supported integration, but that he did not think busing was the right mechanism to achieve it. The spokesman also said Mr. Biden thought busing placed an undue burden on African-American families. In an attempt to highlight other aspects of Mr. Biden’s record on civil rights, he pointed to comments in 1975 calling for housing and employment integration, and in 1986 pressing Justice William H. Rehnquist on integration.

Dismal support for busing in ’70s

To some extent, Mr. Biden’s opposition to busing reflected the majority of the country at the time. Polling in the 1970s found only single-digit support for the practice.

“Busing is unpopular for many reasons,” The New York Times reported in 1978. “Some parents say they fear that their children will be unsafe or get an inferior education; many parents and children say they sincerely prefer the neighborhood school concept; the comments of some are racist.”

Research has shown that nationwide, the segregation of black students in public schools declined significantly between 1968 and 1980, the period during which the courts decided that busing could be used to aid school integration. And indeed, a 1999 Gallup poll showed that Americans believed busing had served a positive historical purpose in improving the education of African-American students.