busing

The problem with the mayor's pledge to return to neighborhood schools

adamg — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:26:19 +0000

What if the schools in one neighborhood are all part of what BPS once euphemistically called "the circle of promise?" The last couple of BPS efforts to reform busing all foundered on the issue that one of its new zones would have contained pretty much nothing but underperforming schools. WBUR reports, talks to Roxbury City Councilor Tito Jackson.

On Mandantory School Busing Here in Boston:

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 19:33:01 +0000

Although mandated school busing here in Boston was implemented for a reason, I firmly believe that, for a number of reasons, it did noit work out the way it was intended.

It's a known fact that, for many years prior to mandated school busing, the all-white Boston School Committee had violated the Racial Imbalance Law in the most mean-spirited, egregious fashion, deliberately keeping de facto segregation of the Boston Public Schools intact.

"People of color are not safe to come here to Boston" - A Brief Reflection

tblade — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 23:08:23 +0000

Currently, civil rights are a Massachusetts hot button, with gay marriage and Jimmy Kelly penatrating the headlines and blog fodder.

Today being Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day of reflection on civil rights, I present two brief snapshots from Boston's voluminous civil rights history:

First, many people don't know that Dr. King first met Coretta Scott, a New England Conservatory student, during his time pursing a doctorate at BU. While here, he rented a room at 397 Mass Ave, where a small plaque still stands to commemorate his time in the Hub.

Dr. King was assassinated April 4, 1968; eight years and one day later, Boston was drenched in busing-induced racial turmoil, and from a rally at city hall was born an iconic, Pulitzer Prize winning photo: Joseph Rakes, a white student spearing black attorney Ted Landsmark with an American flag.

State Senator William Owens (D-Boston) stated on the WGBH 10 O'Clock News, April 6, 1976:

"People of color are not safe to come here to Boston and we are asking people across the country, of color, to stay away'.

WGBH has archival news casts from that day:

Click here to watch the original report on the vicious Landsmark assault and Senator Owens statements.
Also: Ted Landsmark's press conference.
[Quicktime]

[Note: The WGBH archive contains a treasure trove of old news clips from 1976-1991. I know there are a few people here that will, like myself, get lost for hours there.]