The desegregation of Boston public schools (1974–1988) was a period in which the
Boston Public Schools
Boston Public Schools (BPS) is a school district serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest public school district in the state of Massachusetts.
Leadership
The district is led by a Superintendent, hired by the ...
were under court control to
desegregate through a system of busing students. The call for desegregation and the first years of its implementation led to a series of racial protests and riots that brought national attention, particularly from 1974 to 1976. In response to the Massachusetts legislature's enactment of the 1965 Racial Imbalance Act, which ordered the state's public schools to desegregate,
W. Arthur Garrity Jr. of the
United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts laid out a plan for
compulsory busing of students between predominantly white and black areas of the city. The hard control of the desegregation plan lasted for over a decade. It influenced Boston politics and contributed to demographic shifts of Boston's school-age population, leading to a decline of public-school enrollment and
white flight
White flight or white exodus is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the United States. They refer ...
to the suburbs. Full control of the desegregation plan was transferred to the Boston School Committee in 1988; in 2013 the busing system was replaced by one with dramatically reduced busing.
History
Racial Imbalance Act
On April 1, 1965, a special committee appointed by
Massachusetts Education Commissioner Owen Kiernan released its final report finding that more than half of black students enrolled in
Boston Public Schools
Boston Public Schools (BPS) is a school district serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest public school district in the state of Massachusetts.
Leadership
The district is led by a Superintendent, hired by the ...
(BPS) attended institutions with enrollments that were at least 80 percent black and that
housing segregation in the city had caused the racial imbalance.
From its creation under the
National Housing Act of 1934
The National Housing Act of 1934, , , also called the Capehart Act and the Better Housing Program, was part of the New Deal passed during the Great Depression in order to make housing and home mortgages more affordable. It created the Federal Ho ...
signed into law by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
, the
Federal Housing Administration used its official
mortgage insurance
Mortgage insurance (also known as mortgage guarantee and home-loan insurance) is an insurance policy which compensates lenders or investors in mortgage-backed securities for losses due to the default of a mortgage loan. Mortgage insurance can be ...
underwriting
Underwriting (UW) services are provided by some large financial institutions, such as banks, insurance companies and investment houses, whereby they guarantee payment in case of damage or financial loss and accept the financial risk for liabilit ...
policy explicitly to prevent
school integration
School integration in the United States is the process (also known as desegregation) of ending Race (human categorization), race-based Racial segregation in the United States, segregation within American public and private schools. School segreg ...
.
The
Boston Housing Authority
The Boston Housing Authority (BHA) is a public agency of the city of Boston, Massachusetts that provides subsidized public housing to low- and moderate-income families and individuals.
In the federal government model of the United States Depart ...
actively segregated the city's
public housing developments since at least 1941 and continued to do so despite the passage of legislation by the
156th Massachusetts General Court prohibiting
racial discrimination
Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their skin color, race or ethnic origin.Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain g ...
or segregation in housing in 1950 and the issuance of
Executive Order 11063 by President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
in 1962 that required all federal agencies to prevent racial discrimination in federally-funded subsidized housing in the United States.
In response to the report, on April 20, 1965, the Boston
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
filed a lawsuit in federal district court against the city seeking the desegregation of the city's public schools.
Massachusetts Governor
The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the chief executive officer of the government of Massachusetts. The governor is the head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonwealth's military forces.
Massachusetts ...
John Volpe (1961–1963 & 1965–1969) filed a request for legislation from the state legislature that defined schools with nonwhite enrollments greater than 50 percent to be imbalanced and granted the State Board of Education the power to withhold state funds from any
school district in the state that was found to have racial imbalance, which Volpe would sign into law the following August.
Also in August 1965, Governor Volpe,
Boston Mayor John F. Collins
John Frederick Collins (July 20, 1919 – November 23, 1995) was an American lawyer who served as the mayor of Boston from 1960 to 1968. Collins was a lawyer who served in the Massachusetts Legislature from 1947 to 1955. He and his children cau ...
(1960–1968), and BPS Superintendent
William H. Ohrenberger
William Henry Ohrenberger (August 23, 1906 – November 13, 1998) was an American educator who served as superintendent of Boston Public Schools from 1963 to 1972.
Early life
Ohrenberger was born on August 23, 1906. He graduated from The English ...
warned the Boston School Committee that a vote that they held that month to abandon a proposal to
bus several hundred blacks students from Roxbury and North Dorchester from three overcrowded schools to nearby schools in Dorchester and
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
, and purchase an abandoned
Hebrew school
Hebrew school is Jewish education focusing on topics of Jewish history, learning the Hebrew language, and finally learning their Torah Portion, in preparation for the ceremony in Judaism of entering adulthood, known as a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Hebr ...
in Dorchester to relieve the overcrowding instead, could now be held by a court to be deliberate acts of segregation.
Pursuant to the Racial Imbalance Act, the state conducted a racial census and found 55 imbalanced schools in the state with 46 in Boston, and in October 1965, the State Board required the School Committee to submit a desegregation plan, which the School Committee did the following December.
The Racial Imbalance Act of 1965
is the legislation passed by the
Massachusetts General Court
The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ...
which made the segregation of public schools illegal in
. The law, the first of its kind in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, stated that "racial imbalance shall be deemed to exist when the percent of nonwhite students in any public school is in excess of fifty per cent of the total number of students in such school." These racially imbalanced schools were required to desegregate according to the law or risk losing their state educational funding.
An initial report released in March 1965, "Because it is Right-Educationally," revealed that 55 schools in Massachusetts were racially imbalanced, 44 of which were in the
City of Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...
.
The Boston School Committee was told that the complete integration of the
Boston Public Schools
Boston Public Schools (BPS) is a school district serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest public school district in the state of Massachusetts.
Leadership
The district is led by a Superintendent, hired by the ...
needed to occur before September 1966 without the assurance of either significant financial aid or suburban cooperation in accepting African American students from Boston or the schools would lose funding.
Boston School Committee opposition to the Racial Imbalance Act
After the passage of the Racial Imbalance Act, the Boston School Committee, under the leadership of
Louise Day Hicks
Anna Louise Day Hicks (October 16, 1916 – October 21, 2003) was an American politician and lawyer from Boston, Massachusetts, best known for her staunch opposition to desegregation in Boston public schools, and especially to court-ordered b ...
, consistently disobeyed orders from the state Board of Education, first to develop a busing plan, and then to support its implementation. Hicks was adamant about her belief that this busing was not what communities and families wanted.
In April 1966, the State Board found the School Committee's plan to desegregate the Boston Public Schools in accordance with the Racial Imbalance Act of 1965 inadequate and voted to rescind state aid to the district, and in response, the School Committee filed a lawsuit against the State Board challenging both the decision and the constitutionality of the Racial Imbalance Act the following August. In January 1967, the
Massachusetts Superior Court
The Massachusetts Superior Court (also known as the Superior Court Department of the Trial Court) is a trial court department in Massachusetts.
The Superior Court has original jurisdiction in civil actions over $50,000, and in matters where equita ...
overturned a Suffolk Superior Court ruling that the State Board had improperly withdrawn the funds and ordered the School Committee to submit an acceptable plan to the State Board within 90 days or else permanently lose funding, which the School Committee did shortly thereafter and the State Board accepted. In June 1967, the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the court of last resort, highest court in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the di ...
upheld the constitutionality of the Racial Imbalance Act and the
U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren (1953–1969) declined to hear the School Committee's appeal in January 1968. On May 25, 1971, the Massachusetts State Board of Education voted unanimously to withhold state aid from the Boston Public Schools due to the School Committee's refusal to use the district's open enrollment policy to relieve the city's racial imbalance in enrollments, instead routinely granting white students transfers while doing nothing to assist black students attempting to transfer.
On March 15, 1972, the Boston NAACP filed a lawsuit, later named ''
Morgan v. Hennigan
''Morgan v. Hennigan'' was the case that defined the school busing controversy in Boston, Massachusetts during the 1970s. On March 14, 1972, the Boston chapter of the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit against the Boston School Committee on beha ...
'', against the Boston School Committee in federal district court. After being randomly assigned to the case, on June 21, 1974, Judge
W. Arthur Garrity Jr. ruled that the open enrollment and controlled transfer policies that the School Committee created in 1961 and 1971 respectively were being used to effectively discriminate on the basis of race, and that the School Committee had maintained segregation in the Boston Public Schools by adding portable classrooms to overcrowded white schools instead of assigning white students to nearby underutilized black schools, while simultaneously purchasing closed white schools and busing black students past open white schools with vacant seats. In accordance with the Racial Imbalance Act, the School Committee would be required to
bus 17,000 to 18,000 students the following September (Phase I) and to formulate a desegregation plan for the 1975–1976 school year by December 16 (Phase II).
Twenty minutes after Judge Garrity's deadline for submitting the Phase II plan expired on December 16, 1974, the School Committee voted to reject the desegregation plan proposed by the department's Educational Planning Center.
On December 18, Garrity
summoned all five Boston School Committee members to court, held three of the members to be in
contempt of court
Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...
on December 27, and told the members on December 30 that he would purge their contempt holdings if they voted to authorize submission of a Phase II plan by January 7.
On January 7, 1975, the School Committee directed school department planners to file a voluntary-only busing proposal with the court. On May 10, the
Massachusetts U.S. District Court announced a Phase II plan requiring 24,000 students to be bused that was formulated by a four-member committee consisting of former
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justice Jacob Spiegel
Jacob J. Spiegel (September 1902 – April 9, 1984) was a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1960 to 1972. He was appointed by Governor Foster Furcolo.
Early life, education, and career
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Spiegel ...
, former
U.S. Education Commissioner Francis Keppel
Francis Keppel (April 16, 1916 – February 19, 1990) was an American educator. As U.S. Commissioner of Education (1962–1965) he was instrumental in developing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and in overseeing enforcement of t ...
,
Harvard Graduate School of Education
The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is the education school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, it was the first school to grant the EdD degree and the first Harvard school ...
professor
Charles V. Willie, and former Massachusetts Attorney General
Edward J. McCormack that was formed by Judge Garrity the previous February. On June 14, the
U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Warren E. Burger (1969–1986) unanimously declined to review the School Committee's appeal of the Phase II plan. In December 1975, Judge Garrity ordered
South Boston High School
South Boston High School was a public high school located in South Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was part of Boston Public Schools. The school closed in 2003, and its former facility is currently occupied by Excel High School (Massach ...
put under federal
receivership
In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...
.
In December 1982, Judge Garrity transferred responsibility for monitoring of compliance to the State Board for the subsequent two years, and in September 1985, Judge Garrity issued his final orders returning jurisdiction of the schools to the School Committee. In May 1990, Judge Garrity delivered his final judgment in ''Morgan v. Hennigan'', formally closing the original case.
Development and implementation of busing
In 1972, the
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
filed a class-action lawsuit (''
Morgan v. Hennigan
''Morgan v. Hennigan'' was the case that defined the school busing controversy in Boston, Massachusetts during the 1970s. On March 14, 1972, the Boston chapter of the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit against the Boston School Committee on beha ...
'' with
Tallulah Morgan as the main plaintiff) against the Boston School Committee on behalf of 14 parents and 44 children alleging segregation in the Boston public schools. Two years later, Judge
W. Arthur Garrity Jr. of the
United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts found a recurring pattern of racial discrimination in the operation of the
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
public schools
Public school may refer to:
*State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government
*Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England and ...
in a 1974 ruling. His ruling found the schools were unconstitutionally segregated, and required the implementation the state's Racial Imbalance Act, requiring any Boston school with a student enrollment that was more than 50% nonwhite to be balanced according to race.
As a remedy, Garrity used a busing plan developed by the Massachusetts State Board of Education, then oversaw its implementation for the next 13 years. Judge Garrity's ruling, upheld on appeal by the
United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (in case citations, 1st Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:
* District of Maine
* District of Massachusetts
* ...
and by the Supreme Court led by
Warren Burger, required school children to be brought to different schools to end segregation.
The busing plan affected the entire city, though the working-class neighborhoods of the racially divided city—whose children went predominantly to public schools—were most affected: the predominantly
Irish-American neighborhoods of
West Roxbury
West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts bordered by Roslindale and Jamaica Plain to the northeast, the town of Brookline to the north, the cities and towns of Newton and Needham to the northwest and the town of Dedham to the ...
,
Roslindale
Roslindale is a primarily residential neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, bordered by Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, West Roxbury and Mattapan.
It is served by an MBTA Commuter Rail line, several MBTA bus lines and the MBTA Orange Line in nearby J ...
,
Hyde Park
Hyde Park may refer to:
Places
England
* Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London
* Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds
* Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield
* Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester
Austra ...
,
Charlestown, and
South Boston and; the predominantly
Italian-American North End neighborhood; the predominantly black neighborhoods of
Roxbury,
Mattapan, and the
South End; and the mixed but segregated neighborhood of
Dorchester.
In one part of the plan, Judge Garrity decided that the entire junior class from the mostly poor white
South Boston High School
South Boston High School was a public high school located in South Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was part of Boston Public Schools. The school closed in 2003, and its former facility is currently occupied by Excel High School (Massach ...
would be bused to
Roxbury High School, a black high school.
Half the sophomores from each school would attend the other, and seniors could decide what school to attend.
David Frum asserts that South Boston and Roxbury were "generally regarded as the two worst schools in Boston, and it was never clear what educational purpose was to be served by jumbling them."
For three years after the plan commenced, Massachusetts state troopers were stationed at South Boston High.
The first day of the plan, only 100 of 1,300 students came to school at South Boston.
Only 13 of the 550 South Boston juniors ordered to attend Roxbury showed up.
Parents showed up every day to protest, and football season was cancelled.
Whites and blacks began entering through different doors.
An anti-busing mass movement developed, called
Restore Our Alienated Rights
Restore Our Alienated Rights (ROAR) was an organization formed in Boston, Massachusetts by Louise Day Hicks in 1974. Opposed to desegregation busing of Boston's public school students, the group protested the federally-mandated order to integra ...
.
The final Judge Garrity-issued decision in ''
Morgan v. Hennigan
''Morgan v. Hennigan'' was the case that defined the school busing controversy in Boston, Massachusetts during the 1970s. On March 14, 1972, the Boston chapter of the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit against the Boston School Committee on beha ...
'' came in 1985, after which control of the desegregation plan was given to the School Committee in 1988.
Impact
The integration plan aroused fierce criticism among some Boston residents. Of the 100,000 enrolled in Boston school districts, attendance fell from 60,000 to 40,000 during these years.
Opponents personally attacked Judge Garrity, claiming that because he lived in a white suburb, his own children were not affected by his ruling. The co-author of the busing plan,
Robert Dentler
Robert A. Dentler (November 26, 1928 – March 20, 2008) was an American sociologist who co-authored and oversaw the controversial court-ordered busing plan to desegregate Boston's public schools in the 1970s through the 1980s. He was involved i ...
, lived in the suburb of
Lexington, which was unaffected by the ruling.
Judge Garrity's hometown of
Wellesley welcomed a small number of black students under the voluntary
METCO
The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, Inc. (METCO, Inc.) is the largest and second-longest continuously running voluntary school desegregation program in the country and a national model for the few other voluntary desegregation bu ...
program that sought to assist in desegregating the Boston schools by offering places in suburban school districts to black students,
but students from Wellesley were not forced to attend school elsewhere. Senator
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
was also criticized for supporting busing when he sent his own children to private schools.
Protests and violence
ROAR
Restore Our Alienated Rights (ROAR) was an anti-desegregation busing organization formed in Boston, Massachusetts by Boston School Committee chairwoman
Louise Day Hicks
Anna Louise Day Hicks (October 16, 1916 – October 21, 2003) was an American politician and lawyer from Boston, Massachusetts, best known for her staunch opposition to desegregation in Boston public schools, and especially to court-ordered b ...
in 1974. Using tactics modeled on the civil rights movement, ROAR activists led marches in Charlestown and South Boston, public prayers, sit-ins of school buildings and government offices, protests at the homes of prominent Bostonians, mock funerals, and even a small march on Washington DC. By 1976, with the failure to block implementation of the busing plan, the organization declined.
Violence
From September 1974 through the fall of 1976, at least 40 riots occurred in the city.
On September 12, 1974, 79 of 80 schools were bused without incident (with
South Boston High School
South Boston High School was a public high school located in South Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was part of Boston Public Schools. The school closed in 2003, and its former facility is currently occupied by Excel High School (Massach ...
being the lone exception),
and through October 10, there were 149 arrests (40 percent occurring at South Boston High alone), 129 injuries, and $50,000 in property damage.
On October 15, an interracial stabbing at
Hyde Park High School led to a riot that injured 8, and at South Boston High on December 11, a non-fatal interracial stabbing led to a riotous crowd of 1,800 to 2,500 whites hurling projectiles at police while white students fled the facility and black students remained.
State Senator
William Bulger
William Michael Bulger (born February 2, 1934) is an American former Democratic politician, lawyer, and educator from South Boston, Massachusetts. His eighteen-year tenure as President of the Massachusetts Senate is the longest in history. He th ...
, State Representative
Raymond Flynn
Raymond Leo Flynn (born July 22, 1939) is an American politician who served as 52nd Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts from 1984 until 1993. He also served as United States Ambassador to the Holy See from 1993–1997.
Flynn was an All-American c ...
, and Boston City Councilor
Louise Day Hicks
Anna Louise Day Hicks (October 16, 1916 – October 21, 2003) was an American politician and lawyer from Boston, Massachusetts, best known for her staunch opposition to desegregation in Boston public schools, and especially to court-ordered b ...
made their way to the school, and Hicks spoke through a bullhorn to the crowd and urged them to allow the black students still in South Boston High to leave in peace, which they did, while the police made only 3 arrests, the injured numbered 25 (including 14 police), and the rioters badly damaged 6 police vehicles.
On February 12, 1975, interracial fighting broke out at Hyde Park High that would last for three days with police making 14 arrests, while no major disturbances occurred in March or April.
On May 3, the
Progressive Labor Party (PLP) organized an anti-racism march in
South Boston, where 250 PLP marchers attacked 20 to 30 South Boston youths and over 1,000 South Boston residents responded, with the police making 8 arrests (including 3 people from
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
) and the injured numbered 10.
From June 10 through July 7, police made no arrests in more than a dozen of what they described as "racial incidents."
On July 27, 1975, a group of black bible salesmen from
South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
went swimming on
Carson Beach, and in response, hundreds of white male and female bathers gathered with pipes and sticks and chased the bible salesmen from the beach on foot with the mob destroying their car and the police making two arrests. The following Sunday, August 3, a
taxicab
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...
with a black driver and three Hispanic passengers were subjected to projectiles from passerby as they drove past the beach. In response, on August 10, black community leaders organized a protest march and picnic at the beach where 800 police and a crowd of whites from South Boston were on hand. 2,000 blacks and 4,000 whites fought and lobbed projectiles at each other for over 2 hours until police closed the beach after 40 injuries and 10 arrests.
On September 8, 1975, the first day of school, while there was only one school bus stoning from Roxbury to South Boston, citywide attendance was only 58.6 percent, and in Charlestown (where only 314 of 883 students or 35.6 percent attended
Charlestown High School) gangs of youths roamed the streets hurling projectiles at police, overturning cars, setting trash cans on fire, and stoning firemen. 75 youths stormed
Bunker Hill Community College
Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is a public community college with multiple campuses in the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1973 in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, BHCC provides higher education and job training servi ...
after classes ended and assaulted a black student in the lobby, while 300 youths marched up
Breed's Hill, overturning and burning cars. On October 24, 15 students at South Boston High were arrested.
On January 21, 1976, 1,300 black and white students fought each other at Hyde Park High, and at South Boston High on February 15, anti-busing activists organized marches under a
parade
A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...
permit from the
Andrew Square and
Broadway MBTA
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...
Red Line stations which would meet and end at South Boston High. After confusion between the marchers and the police about the parade route led marchers to attempt to walk through a police line, the marchers began throwing projectiles at the police, the marchers regrouped, and migrated to South Boston High where approximately 1,000 demonstrators engaged with police in a full riot that required the police to employ
tear gas
Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ad ...
. 80 police were injured and 13 rioters were arrested.
On April 5, civil rights attorney
Ted Landsmark
Theodore "Ted" Carlisle Landsmark (born May 17, 1946) is an American educator and lawyer. Landsmark is currently Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Director of the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regiona ...
was assaulted by a white teenager at City Hall Plaza with a flagpole bearing the
American flag (famously depicted in a
1977 Pulitzer Prize The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1977.
Journalism awards
*Public Service:
**The '' Lufkin News'' (Texas), for an obituary of a local man who died in Marine training camp, which grew into an investigation of that death and a fundamental r ...
-winning photograph, ''
The Soiling of Old Glory'' published in the ''
Boston Herald American'' by photojournalist
Stanley Forman
Stanley Joseph Forman (born July 10, 1945) is an American photojournalist, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography two years in a row while working at the '' Boston Herald American''.
Biography
A native of Winthrop, Massachusett ...
).
On April 19, 1976, black youths in Roxbury assaulted a white motorist and beat him comatose, while numerous car stonings occurred through April, and on April 28, a
bomb threat at Hyde Park High emptied the building and resulted in a melee between black and white students that require police action to end.
On the evening of September 7, the night before the first day of school, white youths in
Charlestown threw projectiles at police and injured 2
U.S. Marshals
The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforceme ...
, a crowd in South Boston stoned an
MBTA bus
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates List of MBTA bus routes, 170 bus routes in the Greater Boston area. The MBTA has a policy objective to provide transit service within walking distance (defined as ) for all residents ...
with a black driver, and the next day, youths in Hyde Park, Roxbury, and Dorchester stoned buses transporting outside students in.
Incidents of interracial violence in Boston would continue from November 1977 through at least 1993.
There were a number of protest incidents that turned severely violent, even resulting in deaths. In one case, attorney
Theodore Landsmark was attacked and bloodied by a group of white teenagers as he exited
Boston City Hall.
One of the youths, Joseph Rakes, attacked Landsmark with an American flag.
A photograph of the attack, ''
The Soiling of Old Glory'', taken by
Stanley Forman
Stanley Joseph Forman (born July 10, 1945) is an American photojournalist, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography two years in a row while working at the '' Boston Herald American''.
Biography
A native of Winthrop, Massachusett ...
for the ''
Boston Herald American'', won the
Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1977.
In a retaliatory incident about two weeks later, Black teenagers in Roxbury threw rocks at auto mechanic Richard Poleet's car and caused him to crash. The youths dragged him out and crushed his skull with nearby paving stones. When police arrived, the man was surrounded by a crowd of 100 chanting "Let him die" while lying in a
coma
A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...
from which he never recovered.
In another instance, a white teenager was stabbed nearly to death by a Black teenager at South Boston High School. The community's white residents mobbed the school, trapping the Black students inside.
There were dozens of other racial incidents at South Boston High that year, predominantly of racial taunting of the Black students. The school closed for a month after the stabbing. When it opened again, it was one of the first high schools to install
metal detectors; with 400 students attending, it was guarded by 500 police officers every day. In December 1975, Judge Garrity turned out the principal of South Boston High and took control himself.
Judge Garrity increased the plan down to first grade for the following school year. In October 1975, 6,000 marched against the busing in South Boston.
Impact on Boston Public Schools
In 1987, a federal appeals court ruled that Boston had successfully implemented its desegregation plan and was in compliance with civil rights law.
Although 13 public schools were defined as "racially identifiable," with over 80 percent of the student population either White or Black, the court ruled "all these schools are in compliance with the district court's desegregation orders" because their make-up "is rooted not in discrimination but in more intractable demographic obstacles."
Before the desegregation plan went into effect, overall enrollment and white enrollment in Boston Public Schools was in decline as the
Baby Boom
A baby boom is a period marked by a significant increase of birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds of defined national and cultural populations. People born during these periods are often ca ...
ended,
gentrification
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...
altered the economic makeup of the city, and Jewish, Irish and Italian immigrant populations moved to the suburbs while black, Hispanic, and Asian populations moved to the city. Although the busing plan, by its very nature, shaped the enrollment at specific schools, it is unclear what effect it had on underlying demographic trends. By the time the court-controlled busing system ended in 1988, the Boston school district had shrunk from 100,000 students to 57,000, only 15% of whom were white.
End of racial desegregation policy
In 1983, oversight of the desegregation system was shifted from Garrity to the Massachusetts Board of Education.
With his final ruling in 1985, Garrity began transfer of control of the desegregation system to the Boston School Committee.
After a federal appeals court ruled in September 1987 that Boston's desegregation plan was successful, the Boston School Committee took full control of the plan in 1988.
In November 1998, a federal appeals court struck down racial preference guidelines for assignment at
Boston Latin School
The Boston Latin School is a public exam school in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established on April 23, 1635, making it both the oldest public school in the British America and the oldest existing school in the United States. Its curriculum f ...
, the most prestigious school in the system, the result of a lawsuit filed in 1995 by a white parent whose daughter was denied admission.
On July 15, 1999, the Boston School Committee voted to drop racial make-up guidelines from its assignment plan for the entire system, but the busing system continued.
In 2013, the busing system was replaced by one which dramatically reduced busing.
Beginning with school year 2014,
they switched to a new policy that gives each family preference for schools near their home, while still ensuring that all students have access to quality high schools.
The voluntary
METCO
The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, Inc. (METCO, Inc.) is the largest and second-longest continuously running voluntary school desegregation program in the country and a national model for the few other voluntary desegregation bu ...
program, which was established in 1966, remains in operation, as do other inter-district school choice programs.
Boston's current school demographics
In 2014, Boston public schools were 40%
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...
, 35% Black, 13%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
, 9% Asian-American and 2% from other races.
In that same year, the school-age population of Boston was 38% black, 34% Hispanic, 19% white, and 7% Asian. The vast majority of white public school enrollment is in surrounding suburbs. In metropolitan Boston, public school enrollment in 2014-2015 was 64% White, 17% Hispanic, 9% black, and 7% Asian.
In the 2019-2020 school year, Boston Public Schools were 42.5% hispanic, 33% black, 14% white, 9% asian, and 1.5% other or multiracial. The demographics of teachers and guidance counselors at Boston Public Schools are as follows: 59.7% white, 21.5% black, 10.7% hispanic, 6.2% asian, and 2% other. The 23,094 school-age children living in Boston that do not attend Boston Public Schools have the following demographics: 46% black, 23% white, 19% hispanic, 3% asian, and 8% other.
See also
*
Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr.
Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr. (June 20, 1920 – September 16, 1999) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts notable for issuing the 1974 order in ''Morgan v. Hennigan'' which mandated ...
, judge who ordered desegregation
*
Kathleen Sullivan Alioto, School committee Chair and member
*
John J. Kerrigan, School Committee Chair and member
*
Ruth Batson
Ruth Marion Batson (née Watson; 1921–2003) was an American civil rights activist and outspoken advocate of equal education. She spoke out about the desegregation of Boston Public Schools. She served as Chairman of the Public Education Sub-Commi ...
, in her work with the Boston Branch of the NAACP, spearheaded the effort for school desegregation in Boston.
*
Jean McGuire
Jean McGuire (born 1931) is an American educator and civil rights leader. She was the first African American woman to be elected to a seat on the Boston School Committee in 1981, during the Boston busing desegregation era. She helped found the Metr ...
, executive director of the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO, Inc.) and the first female African American to gain a seat on the Boston School Committee at Large right after the Boston busing desegregation
*
Kevin White (mayor)
Kevin Hagan White (September 25, 1929 – January 27, 2012) was an American politician best known as the Mayor of Boston, an office to which he was first elected at the age of 38, and which he held for four terms, amounting to 16 years, from 1968 ...
, United States politician best known as the Mayor of Boston, during the late 1960s and the 1970s. White won the mayoral office in the 1967 general election in a hard-fought campaign opposing the anti-busing and anti-desegregation Boston School Committee member Louise Day Hicks.
*
Louise Day Hicks
Anna Louise Day Hicks (October 16, 1916 – October 21, 2003) was an American politician and lawyer from Boston, Massachusetts, best known for her staunch opposition to desegregation in Boston public schools, and especially to court-ordered b ...
, an American politician and lawyer from Boston, Massachusetts, best known for her staunch opposition to desegregation in Boston Public Schools, and especially to court-ordered busing in the 1960s and 1970s
*
Joe Moakley, a Democratic congressman from the Ninth District of Massachusetts. He won the seat from incumbent Louise Day Hicks in a 1972 rematch.
*
South Boston High School
South Boston High School was a public high school located in South Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was part of Boston Public Schools. The school closed in 2003, and its former facility is currently occupied by Excel High School (Massach ...
was the site of many of the most vocal and violent protests of busing and desegregation. As a result of these protests, the school's community became unsafe for students; a federal court placed the school into receivership in December 1975.
* The
Combahee River Collective, a Black lesbian feminist organization based across the river in Cambridge, included members who worked on school desegregation in Boston.
*
Citywide Educational Coalition played an important role in the desegregation of the Boston Public Schools and advocated for school reform by providing parents with the skills necessary to participate in shaping education policy.
View guide to the records
/ref>
* List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
Listed are major episodes of civil unrest in the United States. This list does not include the numerous incidents of destruction and violence associated with various sporting events.
18th century
*1783 – Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, June 20 ...
References
Further reading
Books
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Dissertations and theses
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Digitized primary sources related to busing for school desegregation in Boston
from various libraries and archives are available vi
Digital Commonwealth
*
Busing in Boston: A research guide
Moakley Archive & Institute, Suffolk University.
Short YouTube video on Boston's busing crisis
How The Boston Busing Decision Still Affects City Schools 40 Years Later
Stark & Subtle Divisions: A Collaborative History of Segregation in Boston
Mayor Kevin H. White records, 1929-1999 (Bulk, 1968-1983)
Boston City Archives
Louise Day Hicks papers, 1971-1975 (Bulk, 1974-1975)
Boston City Archives
The Boston City Archives are located in West Roxbury, MA, and are the repository for all official records that must be kept to honor both the history of the municipal government in Boston and the legal rights of its citizens. The City Archives were ...
School Committee Secretary Desegregation Files 1963-1984 (bulk: 1974–1976)
Boston City Archives
Morgan et al. v. Hennigan et al. and related cases files, 1967-1979
Boston City Archives
W. Arthur Garrity, Jr. chambers papers on the Boston Schools Desegregation Case, 1972-1997
University Archives and Special Collections, Joseph P. Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston
The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a Public university, public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus Un ...
Center for Law and Education: Morgan v. Hennigan case records, 1964-1994
University Archives and Special Collections, Joseph P. Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston
The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a Public university, public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus Un ...
40 Years Later, Boston Looks Back On Busing Crisis
Collisions of Church & State: Religious Perspectives on Boston's School Desegregation Crisis
An International and Domestic Response to Boston Busing directed at Mayor Kevin White
What About the Kids?: A Look into the Student Perspective on Boston Desegregation
{{Riots in the United States (1980–present)
School segregation in the United States
African-American history in Boston
Riots and civil disorder in Massachusetts
History of racism in Massachusetts