Final answer:
The Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education case led to the use of busing to achieve racial integration in Charlotte schools, making it a landmark example of student-led change. The demise of busing and the shift toward school choice plans represented the evolving strategies to address school segregation. Student movements, like the Greensboro Sit-Ins, underscored the significant role students played in the civil rights movement.
Step-by-step explanation:
Founded in Charlotte, North Carolina, the case of Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education led to significant student change by using busing to promote racial integration in schools. The implementation of busing in the 1970s and '80s marked Charlotte as "the city that made desegregation work." However, in the 1990s, facing a new set of challenges and backlash, the use of busing came to an end, and the school district moved towards a choice plan centered on magnet schools and subsequently, a "School Choice Plan" that divided the city into four large attendance zones.
Alongside the victories of Brown v. Board of Education and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, grassroots movements like the Greensboro Sit-Ins and the formation of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) demonstrated that students were capable of leading change. These students were central in shaping the civil rights movement, influencing figures like Martin Luther King Jr.
Greensboro also saw earlier seeds of change when Martin Luther King Jr. made an inspirational appeal for peaceful change in 1958, which encouraged the more assertive actions by students and bolstered the broader civil rights movement in places like Charlotte.