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Justice, Truth, and Community Organizing in Boston, MA

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Justice, Truth, and Community Organizing in Boston, MA University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 8-2012 Justice, Truth, and Community Organizing in Boston, MA Melanie Ann Barron [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Human Geography Commons Recommended Citation Barron, Melanie Ann, "Justice, Truth, and Community Organizing in Boston, MA. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2012. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/1258 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Melanie Ann Barron entitled "Justice, Truth, and Community Organizing in Boston, MA." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, with a major in Geography. Joshua F. J. Inwood, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Micheline van Riemsdijk, Nicholas Nagle Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Justice, Truth, and Community Organizing in Boston, MA A Thesis Presented for The Master of Science Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Melanie Ann Barron August 2012 Dedication For Slade, my first and best friend. iii Acknowledgements I would first like to thank my advisor, Dr. Josh Inwood for his guidance, support, and patience over the past two years. Under his tutelage, this work has defined what I want to do for the rest of my life. Thank you. I also would like to acknowledge my committee members, Dr. Micheline van Riemsdijk and Dr. Nicholas Nagle, for their critiques and support throughout this process. Also, thank you to the UTK Geography community for your continuous encouragement, enthusiasm, and willingness to lend a hand. I owe much gratitude to the Union of Minority Neighborhoods for allowing me to learn about your exciting work. Learning about what you do has been a pleasure and an honor. Thank you to all of my interview participants for sharing your stories with me. Thank you Ann Hedges and Ian Dyer for your kind accommodation during my fieldwork. Thanks to the entire Hedges clan for helping me get to know New England better. Thank you to my family for your endless support and encouragement. Finally, thank you Ben for coming into my life at just the right time. iv Abstract In 2010, community organizers in Boston, MA began to lay the groundwork for a truth and reconciliation process about the long-term impacts of the violence and racism surrounding the desegregation/busing crisis in the 1970s. Organizers believe that the busing crisis still presents impediments to the ability of communities of color in Boston to live well and participate in public life. I contextualize their efforts first as a response to the failures of the liberal democratic reforms that marked the civil rights movement. Rather than truly reforming the structures that permit the existence of racialized inequalities, I argue that the liberal democratic state instead systematically preserves and enhances white privileged access to resources. The state does this by resolving crises in such a way that places racism and inequality outside the purview of state responsibility by constructing a “post-racist” sensibility. I demonstrate this by examining two seminal court cases in Boston: Morgan v. Hennigan and Wessman v. Boston School Committee . Second, in order to achieve equality, I argue that the notions of justice and rights must be expanded in order to achieve a positive conception of rights—one in which it is possible to advocate for the rights of groups rather than liberal individuals. Thus, I conceptualize the organizers’ efforts as a way to use a restorative conception of justice to assert a Right to the City, in terms of asserting a right to live well and participate in public life. v Table of Contents Dedication ................................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. iv Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ v Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 Overview ................................................................................................................................................ 1 The Road to Busing: A Brief Background ................................................................................... 5 Literature Review ............................................................................................................................ 11 Race in Critical Geography ...................................................................................................................... 11 Theorizing Space, Justice, and the Right to the City ...................................................................... 14 Boston Today: A Brief Social Geography ................................................................................. 17 Chapter Two: Methodology ................................................................................................ 21 Theoretical Foundations ............................................................................................................... 21 Interviews .......................................................................................................................................... 22 Reflexivity, Positionality, and Privilege in the Field ........................................................... 25 Archives............................................................................................................................................... 28 Analysis ............................................................................................................................................... 32 Chapter Three: The Colorblind Courtroom and the Fight for Educational Equality ..................................................................................................................................... 35 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 35 Liberalism and the Colorblind Space of the State ................................................................ 38 Case Studies ....................................................................................................................................... 46 Morgan v. Hennigan ................................................................................................................................... 46 Wessman v. Boston School Committee—US Court of Appeals ................................................. 55 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 60 Chapter Four: Uniting A Community With Truth: Boston Busing/Desegregation Project........................................................................................................................................ 62 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 62 Restorative Justice, Truth and Reconciliation, and the Right to the City .................... 65 Retributive Justice ...................................................................................................................................... 66 Restorative Justice ...................................................................................................................................... 70 Restorative Justice and the Right to the City ......................................................................... 77 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 88 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 91 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 96 Vita ............................................................................................................................................ 101 vi List of Figures Figure 1: Boston's Neighborhoods ................................................................................................ 20 Figure 2: Pattern of the Liberal State ........................................................................................... 45 Figure 3: Morgan v. Hennigan and the Liberal State .............................................................. 52 Figure 4: Wessman v. Boston School Committee and the Liberal
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