This article uses critical race theory, court opinions, newspapers, and interviews to explain how the burden of busing for desegregation was placed upon Blacks in Nashville, Tennessee and why the agenda of the litigants in the Kelley v. Metropolitan Board of Education cases shifted over time. The deliberate pace of the initial desegregation policy, liberal transfer options, and exclusion of the suburbs from the busing plan relieved Whites of policy burdens and reduced their opposition to Nashville's desegregation policies. Thus, a convergence of interests occurred as predicted by critical race theory.