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THE BATTLE OF BOSTON: An Investigation of. ROAR
Boston: October 5, 1974. A Black man, Yvon Jean-Louis, 31 years old, is pulled from his car by a \vhite mob in South Boston. He runs for cover, is pursued, tries to climb onto a front porch, is beaten with fists and hockey sticks and then hospitalized. Attempted lynch ing, northern-style.
Millions of people saw this scene on ity over Black people. TV. What they didn't see were the rocks A growing alliance. led by the Black and bottles hurled every day at Black and Puerto Rican c.ommunities. is fighting children on their way to school. They back, saying NO TO RACISM . On December 14, didn't see the armed attacks by the Ku 1974, 20,000 people marched in Boston, Klux Klan and other white vigilantes on rallying the determination of the anti the Black housing projects at Columbia racist forces . Point or the residents' heroic defense. They didn't hear the daily insults direct The fact that Boston is the scene, ed at Black children inside their new not Selma, and that white workers are now classrooms. The TV news hasn't shmm the in the middle of mobs attacking Black writing on South Boston and Hyde Park children, muddles many people's thinking. walls: "Niggers, Beware", "Everyone Racist justifications -- "We're only fight Should Own a Nigger", "Niggers for Sale". ing suburban liberals who try to shove It hasn't shown the police directing busing down our throats," or "The little school buses into the racists' line of people of Southie are finally fighting fire. It hasn't shmm the courage and back" -- gain dangerous credibility. dignity with which Boston's Black cowmu "Antibusing" is not a genuine program to nity has withstood and fought back against oppose ruling class interests by fighting, the most sustained racist offensive in the for example, for decent schools. A grim US today. reality is hidden behind all the rhetoric Racism is the issue in Boston. and apologies: like George Wallace, the Racism is more than a bad idea, it's racist leaders in Boston use a thin "anti a bad reality. Racism is an institutional Establishment" veil to cover for racism. ized system in the US in which Black and This is a classic fascist strategy for Third world people are pushed dmvn and out, mobilizing support within the 1.vorking forced to live in dilapidated housing, class. attend schools that don't teach and hospi Apologies also come disguised in tals that don't heal, and work the dirt "left" clothing. The Revolutionary Union iest, most dangerous and poorest-paid jobs. (RU), focuses its attack on the busing This system, built for years in plan, as if that \-Jere the central cause Boston by the banks, insurance companies, of racist violence. The RU refuses to big universities, real estate interests name and fight racism among white workers, and the Democratic Party machine, has arguing that the ruling class is fomenting been under sustained attack by the Black all the trouble. But, control of racism community. The leaders of the so-called by the rulers does not explain away the "antibusing" movement, operating out of important role played by those who carry their positions on the School Committee out the front-line violence against Black and the City Council, are fighting to keep people. It took both the plantation this system intact. They have organized masters and the poor 1..:hite slave-catchers the violent attacks on Black people, to keep toe sLave system going; it took building in the process a powerful base both Rockefeller ~nd the state troopers among all-white unions, white city govern to murder the brothers of Attica. ment \vorkers, \oJhite homeowners, realtors , The RU and other groups argue that and others who benefit from racism. They Black people should "unite" 1.vith 1.o1hite have also recruited poor and unemployed Horkers to oppose busing. This is "unity" whites, who have little to gain from based on acceptance of racism. Following racism but a shallow feeling of superior- this approach, Black people should join 8
t~c "a:1tibusing" demonstrations, although • thev'd better be able to protect them ;': ;'; sel~·cs against rocks and bricks. Real uni ~v between Black and white people can I o ~ly.be built by directly confronting I } ·~·~ite racism. Busing is not the issue in Boston. The Weather Underground Organization Of the 40% of all schoolchildren in the has been active during the school crisis . CS who get to school by bus, only 2% are bused for purposes of integration. It's From underground, ~ve have put up antirac this busing that the racists call "forced ist stickers and talked with people in busing" and oppose. As Amiri Baraka, \vhite working-class cow.munities, stink Chairman of the Congress of Afrikan bom~ed the offices of the School Commit Pecple (CAP), puts it, "The \vhites are not tee and marched in the National March attacking busing, they're attacking Blacks. Against Racism on December 14.th. We've The buses only bring the Blacks . It is also secretly attend~d weekly meetings of racism that is dividing, not busing." ROA~ (Restore Our ~l~enated Rights), the rac~st spearhead or the Boston antibusing . "~ntibusing" has a political meaning movement. Our purpose has been to gain ~h~ch ~s not at all about whether busing knowledge of the enemy's strategy and ~s the best way to achieve decent educa tion for most children. The all-white goals. to expose ROAR's purposes and to discover its vulnerable points. 'The ~oston.Schoo~ Committee, which for years nas ra~sed h~gh the banner of "antibusing" information we have gathered proves that and the "neighborhood school" has never racism is the guiding , · motive force hesitated to bus children out'of their behind the "antibusing" drive. ROAR was formed by City Councillor ~eighborhoods for the purpose of maintain ;ng forced.segregation, and iust this fall Louise Day Hicks and 25 other women in Aoril 1974. The name ROAR refers to the ~ought aga~nst Black and Puerto Rican proposals for community control of their "~lienate~ rights" of r.vhite people - schools . The real questions are: \.fno r.vill r~ghts wh~ch ROAR claims are violated by control the schools? Will the children the busing plan. learn? White racist control has ahvays a ROAR is led by "community leaders" aimed to prevent the Black child from and the diehard rem~ants of Boston's s~cceeding in that dangerous and subver reactionary Democratic Party machinfr. s~ve endeavor: learning to read. R?AR power centers include the City Coun There is widesrrp~~ discussion in c~l. the School Co~~ittee and the Police Boston's Black and Puerto Rican communi Department. Most ROAR leaders are prop ties about the merits of the busing plan, erty mvners. who represent the upper about how to educate children in a racist st:ata of white, ethnic r.vorking-class society·. There are movements developin <> ne~ghborhoods l i ke South Boston, Charles for community control and to defend bi- 0 to~TI and East Boston. Far from being a lingual education. \.fuat unites all these spontaneous upsurge, the racist movement has been carefully orchestrated for years diverse struggles is the fundamental from the inner circles of Boston's city demand that BLACK AND PUERTO RICAN government. . CHILDREN MUST ~~VE THE RIGHT TO ATTEND Average attendance at ROAR meetings ~~y SCHOOL IN THE CITY WITHOUT FEAR OR ranges between 400 and 500 people. The I~TIMIDATION. gatherings are militant, with those present committed to their cause. ROAR has ~trong ties in many of Boston 's white work~ng-class neighborhoods, as well as in the all-white, wealthier suburbs. Since the start of the school year, ROAR has been the main force behind the white school boycott, a nd has organized rallies ~otorcad es and marches, sometimes draw- ' ~ng up to 20,000 people. ROAR is now planning a national l-larch on \.Jashington on March 18 to demand a constitutional amend me~t against busing. ROAR has created the cl~mate in which racist violence has esca l a ted. It is difficult to investigate ROAR without being detected. ROAR members know at ~e~st a few o t hers fro~ their own com mun;~~es. ROAR f unctions in semi-secret fasn~on; at each oeeting , two or three people were reooved, eithe r beca use they we r e s us pected of being with the press or because no one could vouch for the m. The attac~ on Yvon Jean-Louis 9
liOTES FROH ROAR MEETINGS when they force you to send your child into Roxbury." *** October 23, 1974: This meeting took Discussion of the "issues" in the place, like all weekly ROAR gatherings, in school crisis follows. One person says the chambers of the City Council, at one that he doesn't want his child bused to City Hall Plaza. the Elma Lewis School or the Lena Park As we enter the chambers, He are con Cultural Center in Roxbury, both renowned fronted with a security force of 6 to 8 centers for art, dance and poetry: men, some wearing white berets. They look closely at each person entering the meet "They call those places cultural inos and ask where you live. Inside, con centers. But these people don't have ti~gents from different neighborhoods are a culture. All they teach at those grouped together. There are 500 peo?le, schools is how to use a knife." '! all white, at the ~eeting. Rita Graul, long-time "executive secretary" to Louise The meeting ends after reports and Day Hicks and the leader of the South discussion of future plans. City Council r. Boston Home and School Association, chairs lor Albert O'Neill announces that 31 city I ' the meeting. She opens \vi th a few remarks : politicians have just signed a statement I• ! : supporting ROAR. This is less than 20 I "I want all of you to look to days after the attack on Yvon Jean-Louis ' your left, look to your right to see in South Boston. if you recognize .the person sitting next to you. We alloH no notetaking in this meeting. Remember, it's a **·k December 4, 1974: This meeting took federal offense to interfere with place while momentum was building for the desegregation and I don't want to be National March against Racism. quoted on anything." Security is even tighter than usual. Rita Graul stops "the meeting three times Next on the agenda are neighborhood to question people. A few people are reports. How is the white boycott going? kicked out. Is any opposition surfacing against ROAR? Speaker after speaker denounces the A ROAR leader in Hyde Park, Richard Laws, upcoming march. The mood is apprehensive, is enthusiastic about activities in his demoralized and divided. One man is neighborhood (where Black children have angered about being called a racist. A been stoned going to school). But LaHs woman from Dorchester gets up and says, notes with concern that a coalition of · "Don't worry. It \vas Lenin who started Boston area tenants have just organized a calling people names like racists and march condemning racism. Laws shouts that Nazis." the tenants are a "bunch of commies" \vho Adam Krapszak, the ROAR representa must be fought. tive from Brighton, a working-class com There are two main speakers: John munity with a large student population, Kerrigan, then the chairman of the School talks openly about the difficulties in Committee and Leo Kahian, the candidate of organizing there. At a recent rally, George Wallace's American Party for bullhorns were torn from the cars in ROAR's Massachusetts Governor. motorcades, and speakers were heckled. Kerrigan's speech attacks a group of Krapszak is upset about a letter printed Black and white teenagers from Charlotte, in a Boston newspaper from a Brighton North Carolina who had come to Boston to resident who likens ROAR to "storm argue for school integration. He calls troopers" and "Nazis". He gives out the them "liars" and says "they'll never get man's phone number and urges people to to· use facilities in our schools to spread harass him. There has also been trouble their filth." Kerrigan then paints the at a Brookline motorcade; ROAR opponents "true picture" of school integration in slashed the tires of over 100 cars and Charlotte: Black students attacking whites confronted the racists with picket signs with knives, white girls being molested in in support of Black students. A ROAR the school bathrooms. No proof is off ered, leader announces that more "marshals'~ but his remarks draw shocked gasps from will be added to the next demonstration. the audience. They are divided over strategy. Some Leo Kahian is next, the featured people argue for a counter-demonstration speaker. He speaks passionatley of his on December 15th, others feel they will love for God, Country and Family and his lose the"numbers game" to the antirac hatred for abortion. An ardent member of ists. As it turned out, 20,000 people the John Birch Society, he looks out on marched on the 14th and 3,000 came to an the crowd and says, '~Host of you here to "antibusing" rally the next day. day are Birchers, only you don't realize There is a heated discussion about it yet ." For this he recieves a s tanding how to keep the white school boycott ovation. Kahian ends with a \>laming alive. Some ROAR members are worried that against Communism. "In Russia and China the School Committee \vill bow dmm to they take your kids away from you at an court pressure and urge students to return early age. Just like they do in Boston -- :v
\-friO ARE ROAR'S LEADERS?
***LOUISE DAY HICKS has led the fully for District Attorney on a plat racist movement 1rom the beginning, form calling for a "crackdown on those moving from positions on the School muggers in Roxbury", and a pledge to Committee to the US Congress to her keep "those crioinals" out . of white present position on the City Cou!1cil. schools. Kerrigan has mastered the She has fought for over 12 years to art of blaming the "suburban liberals" keep the schools segregated and her for the Boston crisis. He has made home community of· South Boston all- the word "nigger" his personal trade white. . · mark; one Black television reporter Richard Nixon once said that cor~.mented that "Kerrigar> is the most Louise Day Hicks would be a fine choice ~~cist person I've ever met, worse for the first >voman President. Hicks than Bull Connor or Lester Haddox." . ' was a long-time supporter of the Viet nam war. She is a lawyer and a la!1d **~':AVI NELSON is 32 years old, a lord, whose comfortable home on Col fast-talking, Harvard-educated talk umbia Road Stands in sharp contrast to she~ host on a local radio station. the D street and Old Colony projects. Nelson is a no-holds-barred rightwing No friend of poor and working people, er: he opposes minimum wage legisla Hicks has fought for years to keep tion, attacks unemployment compensation tenant organizing out of South Bos~on. and supports right- to->.;ork and other Hicks is now the head of the Ways union-busting laHs. Nelson has and Means Committee of the City Coun launched a big campaign to discredit cil. She used this position to block the farmworkers' drive in the Boston $1 million in Model Cities funds from area. Hayer Kevin 1fuite recently ap going to renovate Franklin Park, in a peared on Nelson's shm.; and gave full mostly-Black section of Dorchester. support to the racist move~ent. Hicks complained that the money would not benefit "her people". Only after **-!:RITA GRAUL and VIRGINIA SHEEHY outraged protests from the Black com from South Boston, FRAN JOHENNE from munity did Hicks and the City Council Hyde Park, and ELVIFA (PIXIE) PALLA finally release the funds. DINO from East Boston are all ROAR leaders based in the Home and School *~'n':JOHN KERRIGAN is a member of the Associations, Boston's all-white ver School Committee and runs one of the sion of the PTA. The Home and School ~erst school systems in the US. Read Associations have a clause in their ing scores in Boston are a year behind constitutions which forbids members the national average and schools for from criticizing the School Committee. most >vorking-class children are run We have also seen seven out of dmm and overcrowded. Kerrigan has be the eight City Councillors, every mem come the svmbol of defiance of school ber of the School Committee, State desegn: ;atlon. Senator HILLIN-1 BULGER and State Rep Lase year, Kerrigan ran unsuccess- resentative RAYHOND FLYNN, at the ROAR meetings.
SOUTH BOSTON
South Boston is 97% Irish and 100% white. It is the nerve center of the racist movement. Along Broadway, Southie's main street, are the offices of the American Nazi Party, the lfuite People's National Socialist Party, and the ROAR-led South Boston Information Center. One \vindow has a poster >.:hich says "Stop the Black Terror From Roxbury". South Boston has an upper strata of small shopkeepers, la•.;yers, police and fireman, realtors, government employees. ROAR draws its leading members from this -class. ROAR is also active among the large numbers of poor and unemployed people who live in Southie's broken-dmm housing projects. South Boston has one of the highest crime rates in the city. 20% of South Boston High School students drop out every year, and only 4% ot its graduates go on to college. A quiet movement has been growing among some South Boston mothers urging an l end to the >vhite school boycott and a "return to peace" in the schools. ROAR labels { these mothers "traitors" to their race and community. Others v1ho c.re angry at their neighbors throwing rocks and attacking Black people are afraid to speak out. ROAR t pressure silences most non-racist voices in Southie. I 11
to school. Louise Day Hicks assures the instantly organized of thousands of whites crowd that ROAR will put its . pressure on who tried to keep the Black students in the School Cornmi ttee. She then urge.; side the school. ROAR strategy is to pro everyone to visit the schools in order to voke violent racial conflict in the get pictures and stories of the horrors schools, to terrorize Black students of integration. and, in this case, to provoke an incident A ~oman then jumps up and reports in the face of the upcoming march. I that a 12-year-old ~hite girl 0as just *** ROAR organizes women by convincing I • "sexually assaulted" in a classroom by white mothers that protecting their c~il three Black students while thawhite dren means protecting them from contact I ! teacher looked on. The woman offers no with Black people. ROAR also twists . ·~ proof but her story is accepted as true, women's real fear of rape into fear and and everyone shudders. Some semblance of hatred of Black men. This is a vicious unity has been restored. tactic used throughout US history, and is A national report follows. Big news an ever-recurring theme at ROAR meetings. is a letter of support from Senator Sam Early in the fall, twin sisters were har Ervin. ROAR members are overjoyed, and assed by Black youths outside Dorchester urge people to send thank-you note~ to him. High School. The mainly-Black football team from the school intervened and the two girls went horne. Their mother came to FURTHER NOTES the next ROAR meeting, sending shock waves thru the room as she described the "eight *** ROAR members claim to be for "qual or ten Blacks who beat my daughters". Two ity education" for their children. But, weeks later, she got up again and described over our months . of attending their meet the "15 or 20 Blacks who beat ll\Y .girls and ings, not once did members discuss how to kicked them to the ground." By the next improve Boston's terrible schools. meeting, the number of assailants had grown *** ROAR members were buoyed by Gerald to 40, who had "almost raped my daughters." Ford's antibusing remarks a week after the *** ROAR has won support from all-white, attack on Yvon Jean-Louis. At a meeting right-wing unions like the Firefighters, following Ford's statement, the atmosphere the Patrolman's Benevolent Association, the was spirited as each speaker said, "The Sheetmetal Workers and the International President is now officially on our side." Longshoreman's Association (Boston local). *** ROAR leader Pixie Palladino of East These unions, which represent a tiny, Boston said on October 9th, "\·:e \oJill ally privileged sector of the working class, with anyone who opposes busing, even the also gave their full support to the Viet American Nazi Party." She added, "We will nam War. The PBA is especially active, fight busing until the end, even if it passing out its newsletter at several ROAR means going underground." meetings. White workers who work with *** ROAR blames busing on the "rich lib Black people -- in hospitals, clerical erals" who live in the suburbs and are work, electrical shops -- have, on the unaffected by integration plans. This has whole, not been won over by ROAR. In always been a thin cover for anti-Black addition, a number of unions with large organizing, a way for ROAR to mobilize Black memberships or radical histories, working-class whites. Wnen the white sub have openly opposed ROAR. The Amalgamated urbs began to express support for "anti Meatcutters and the United Electrical busing'', ROAR's tune changed . . At an Oct ~7orkers (UE) have stationed guards at South ober 30th meeting, ROAR leaders argued Boston transit stops to protect Black work that attacks on the suburbs should be ers going to work in Southie. muted, and that an alliance of suburban *** ROAR works most effectively in commu and inner-city whites should be built. nities where there are no Blacks, no Puerto One member said, "\