Forums & EVENTS
Latinos and Boston School Desegregation
Media Coverage of Boston School Desegregation
METCO's History, Future and Suburban Resistance to Integration
Bus Drivers during Desegregation: When buses were stoned
East Boston During Desegregation and Events since then
(NOTE: Events done already are listed further below and some have links to recordings)
What follows is list of all the Forums, Exhibits, Walking Tours, Mobile Bus Museum.
Some additional events and Walking Tours will take place.
After this list of activities, there is material on some of the past individual forums
and for some there are links to recordings.
Boston Desegregation and Busing Initiative Forums
Exhibits, and the Boston Desegregation Mobile
Bus Museum
The Boston Desegregation and Busing Initiative was formed in 2023 to organize
forums, exhibits partnerships to commemorate and discuss lessons learned from
the events of Boston Desegregation and Busing from 1960-1978.
A Committee of over 40 community leaders from this period, teachers who taught
then, officials has guided this initiative. See further below the names of the
Committee members.
I. Forums
1. “Organizing for better schools and desegregation 1960-1973, largely led by
the Black community”, September 26, 2023, held at Roxbury Community
College.
2. “The Tallulah Morgan vs. James Hennigan, the Boston Desegregation Case “
held June 20, 2024 at the Moakley Federal Courthouse on the day before the
50 th anniversary of Judge Garrity’s decision.
3. Boston Premier of the American Experience WGBH documentary, “The Busing
Battleground,” held September 7, 2024 at the Community Academy of Science
and Health School. Mayor Wu, Superintendent Skipper, and the filmmakers
were amongst the speakers.
4. Walking Tour with Commentary of the Key Events in Boston Desegregation
and Busing” held September 14, 2024
5. “What happened in the Schools and Neighborhoods when Busing began,” held
September 28, 2024 at the Boston Public Library.
6. “The Legacy of Desegregation and Busing: Success or Failure”, held September
28, 2024 at the Boston Public Library.
7. “How Redlining and Blockbusting in Dorchester-Mattapan Victimized African-
Americans and Jews 1968-1972,” held as a Walking Tour with Commentary,
October 19, 2024.
8. “Disrupting the Narrative: Latino Voice Before, During, and Since
Desegregation,” held January 30, 2025 at LaSala in Roxbury.
9. “Boston Busing in Chinatown 50 Years Later,” held Saturday September
13, 2025 at Quincy Elementary School in Chinatown. Organized by the
Chinatown Community Land Trust and co-sponsored by the Boston
Desegregation and Busing Initiative.
II. Exhibits
1. Exhibit on Boston Desegregation and Busing History at J Gallery at the
Boston Public Library, September 10, 2024-January 7, 2025. The
Boston Desegregation and Busing Initiative co-sponsored the this
exhibit of photographs, time lines, narratives with the Archives of
Northeastern University, UMass Boston, Suffolk University, Boston
College, City of Boston Archives, and Boston historian Jim Vrabel.
2. Traveling Exhibit displayed at forums of 45 photographs of events and
150 handwritten essays from the February 27, 1964 Freedom Stay-
Outs school boycott of 10,000 students who attended Freedom Schools
held in churches and community centers.
III. Boston School Desegregation Mobile Bus Museum
We bought a school bus!?! It will be outfitted with photographs, narrative,
monitors to show documentary clips. We envision that Boston Public Schools
studying Civil Rights history can call and schedule the Bus Museum to come to
their school and students can go outside and on to the bus for a mini-field trip.
Since the METCO suburban integration program was started also by the key
Boston education equity leader Ruth Batson, we envision also connecting with the
33 METCO suburbs on this history.
IV. Continued Scheduling of Walking Tours with Commentary of Key Events
We continue to offer these and did this at the MA Teachers Association’s Winter
Conference in January and for the Boston Teachers Union on October 25, 2025
Using our descriptions of key events in Boston Desegregation and Busing history,
WGBH designed a kind of app for the Walking Tour...
october 19th 2024
How the Redlining and Blockbusting in Dorchester-Mattapan that victimized African-Americans and Jews 1968-1972 also directly impacted the decision in the 1974 Boston School Desegregation Case, Morgan vs. Hennigan
10:00 AM
**Meet in front of Family Hardware Store, 1106 Blue Hill Avenue, Dorchester, two blocks north of the intersection of Blue Hill Avenue and Morton Street.
We will visit the sites of the redlining and blockbusting that harmed the Dorchester-Mattapan neighborhoods and their residents….and the major connection this had in the Boston school desegregation case, Morgan vs. Hennigan.
The Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group program of home mortgages for Black families led to a series of scandals that led to massive neighborhood deterioration: redlining, blockbusting, failure of the government to do required inspections of homes being sold, fast foreclosures, mismanagement of foreclosed buildings, the spread of abandoned buildings. These were failures by banks, realtors, HUD, Mayor White, and the City Council.
Meanwhile, the Black community starting especially in 1963 was pressing the Boston School Committee to improve education for Black students. Their schools got less funding, needed the most repairs, and got the most inexperienced teachers.
In this context, the School Committee made an agreement with the State Board of Education in 1967 to receive 75% state funding to build 4 state of the art schools in areas of Dorchester with adjoining Black and White neighborhoods and to open them as integrated schools.
When the schools opened like the Lee School in Dorchester, due to the redlining and blockbusting, there was no longer much of an integrated neighborhood there. The School Committee assigned 200 White children to attend the Lee School. The White parents rebelled and 600 met on September 21, 1971, at the O’Hearn School in Dorchester and demanded and got the School Committee to reverse their vote so all their children could attend the all-white O’Hearn School and almost all-white Fifield School.
This breaking of this commitment to open these schools as integrated was the last straw that led to the NAACP Boston and NAACP National to begin the process of filing a court suit for the desegregation of the Boston Public Schools. This was filed on March 16, 1972, 6 months after the School Committee reneged on opening these schools as integrated. This was a major piece of evidence cited by Judge Garrity in Tallulah Morgan vs. James Hennigan, the Boston school desegregation case decision made in 1974.
Tour and Discussion led by Lew Finfer, Co-Chair of the Boston Desegregation and Busing Initiative and community organizer in Boston and MA since 1970. He experienced these events firsthand as a community organizer back then.
January 25th 2025
Beyond Boston: Why the Suburbs were not included in the Boston School Desegregation Implementation Plan
Join the discussion on the enduring segregation within suburban communities and the pivotal role of METCO in fostering desegregation across 33 suburbs. Share insights, perspectives, and experiences as we examine the challenges and progress in promoting diversity and inclusion beyond urban centers.
Time TBD
Panelists include:
Milly Arbaje-Thomas, CEO of METCO
Jean McGuire, METCO Director 1973-2016
METCO Students, Alumni, Superintendent
Marc Draisen, Director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and former Director of the Citizens Housing and Planning Association
Amy Dain, author of the recent report, “Exclusionary by Design: An Investigation of Zoning’s Use as a Tool of Race, Class, and Family Exclusion in Boston’s Suburbs 1920 to Today”
Registration required. This is an online and in-person event. FREE.
Past Events and Conversations
June 20th, 2024
On the Tallulah Morgan vs. James Hennigan
3:00-5:00pm
Moakley Courthouse - 1 Courthouse way, Boston MA 02210
The Legal Cases on Boston Desegregation: State Supreme Court Cases and the Federal Court Decision finding that Boston’s Schools were unconstitutionally segregated in Tallulah Morgan vs. James Hennigan, June 1974, and Ordering the Remedy of Busing.
View the event Zoom Recording: Passcode: 1pDUg1*R
Moderator
Tanisha M. Sullivan, Esq.| President of Boston NAACP
Panelists
Eric Van Loon | among Plaintiff’s Attorney
Bob Pressman | among Plaintiff’s Attorney
Alan Rose | Law Clerk to Judge Garrity
Charles Glenn | MA Department of Education official enforcing the Racial Imbalance Law
Ivan Madrigal-Espinoza | Director of Lawyers for Civil Rights
Martha Minow | Former Dean of Harvard Law School
Jim Vrabel | Boston historian
Terry Seligmann | Law Clerk to Judge Garrity
Caroline Playter | Attorney for Plaintiff Intervenor El Comite de Padres Pro Defensa De La Educacion Bilingue (El Comite de Padres)
The Legacy of Desegregation and Busing: Success or Failure
September 28, 2024 (PM)
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO RECORDING
FROM THE EVENT HERE.
What Happened in the Schools and Neighborhoods When Desegregation and Busing Began
September 28, 2024 (AM)
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO RECORDING
FROM THE EVENT HERE.
Boston globe June 10, 2024
Racial Segregation in Massachusetts Schools
"It's heartbreaking: 225,000 Massachusetts students attend substandard segregated schools, report finds"
Organizing for Education Equity september 26,2023
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO RECORDING
FROM THE EVENT HERE.