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'.
[url=http://www.wgbh.org/resources/archives]WGBH[/url] has archival news casts from that day:
Click here to watch the original [url=http://main.wgbh.org/ton/programs/A198_01.html]report on the vicious Landsmark assault [/url] and Senator Owens statements.
Also: [url=http://main.wgbh.org/ton/programs/A187_01.html]Ted Landsmark's press conference.[/url]
[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.]
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