Peter Hornbein described the impact that busing had on his life as “profound.” He wrote: “I found and made friends from different races and backgrounds; yet I also observed acts of racism and nativism.”

The racism he witnessed was both covert and overt, but busing “opened my eyes to the impact of systemic racism,” added Mr. Hornbein, who is white and went to George Washington High School from 1968 to 1971.

Mr. Hornbein remembers a friend from elementary school who identified as Chicana. She “put me in my place in seventh grade when I boasted about how I was a third-generation Coloradan,” he wrote. “She noted that her family had been in Colorado since the time when Colorado was part of Mexico.” That same friend, he added, was taunted by other Chicano and Latin students who were bused in from other schools and who spoke Spanish when she did not.

“Through my interactions with my friends of color, I came to understand that, although we Jews had suffered because of racism, nativism, and anti-Semitism, we had become white,” Mr. Hornbein wrote. “We served an economic purpose in this country, but always had the ‘promise’ of assimilation. Other populations of color never had and still do not have the promise of assimilation; they are and will continue to be oppressed.”

Smith Elementary School (Denver)

Traci Hailpern, 47, attended Smith Elementary School from 1977 to 1980. She was a minority in her school, but not in the way one might think. For Ms. Hailpern, who is white, busing changed the way she saw the world. Here’s what she had to say:

“Despite the prevalence of nearby schools in my Denver neighborhood, I was bused across town for first through third grades. I remember overhearing my father complaining about this, but not understanding why. All I knew was that I loved my teachers and made a lot of new friends.

“It wasn’t until high school when I fully understood that I was a minority in my high school, and that’s what my father was so upset about. By this time, I was so fiercely loyal to the diverse set of friends I’d known since I was 6, that I found myself on defense, often arguing with my father about his misguided opinions. These racially-charged debates continued throughout my adult life until he passed, but I can’t help but think I made a difference in helping him see the world through the eyes of his blond-haired, blue-eyed minority daughter.