“METCO  gave me a sense of hope. It changed the course of my eternity”

– Sean Cummings

“Without METCO, I’d be somebody completely different, probably locked up somewhere”

– Robert Parris

METCO stands for the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity. Founded in 1966 in Boston, Massachusetts, the program is the longest continuously running voluntary school desegregation program in the country and a national model for many to follow.

The civil rights movement is often taught as a Southern phenomenon. Yet, the struggle for racial justice occurred all over the country, especially in Northern cities. On the heels of the civil rights movement and in contrast to forced busing, METCO was an experiment initially conceived by a few "do-gooders" who were looking at it as an offshoot to fair housing & access to better employment opportunities.