. ' .. ~\.. n/())~ CITY-WIDE '-:')~EDUCATIONAL ' COALITION ~2 Chuuncy St • Rrr. 305 · Bo~ton, Mass .. 02111 • 54~ · 2835 May 17, 1976 \ I Honorable Kevin H. White .. Mayor of Boston City Hall Boston, Massachusetts 02201 Dear Mr. ~1ayor: I began this letter intending to send it to Speaker McGee and Judge Nelson, the co-chairmen of your Committee on Violence. I quickly realized, however, - that I would simply be asking them to deliver a message to you that I could I deliver myself. I feel compelled to write to you at this time to try to share with you some ideas which I have been unable to get across to you either directly or through your staff for the last 2 years. let me say at the outset that I am grateful for the assistance that your administration has given to the City-Hide· Educational Coalition over the last 3 years. Through the efforts of Bob Kiley, Rich Kelliher, Bob Schwartz, Peter 11eade, Mark Weddelton, David Ros enbloom, Bob Hanson, Paul McCaffrey, and many . others our work has be~n made easier and has indeed grown and expanded. -That ·work has been and continues to be vital to the life of this city and it is· because of the results of this work that I write to you today. I ~sk that you keep this letter as contidential as you possibly can as I intend to say .. some things which will not be well received in some quarters and I, '~Cili::. cus \f!url: i1~g ,Tu::;,diJCr Fur Beller Scbuuls''.· .; . ' • • I -2- I ' . my staff, and our con.stituents have been subjected to enough violence, threats·, and harassment to fill .several lifetimes. We are not looking for any more, but we also will not be sjlenced by it~ I write to you today in the belief that now is the time for you to move to take over the leadership of this city once again. There· is a prevailing view in many areas .of thi_s city that you have abdicated your office, are often not here,- • and when here, you .are .not really on top of what is going on. I spea~ for my- self but my comments are tempered by the daily accounts of the 30 members of ~y s,taff who live and work in every neighborhood of this city and who deal with its people day-and night a·round the issue which tears this city apart. Boston and its people have been through 2 years of hell. We have paid an enormous price, and people \'lander v1hen this agony is going to end. I will try in the next few pages to help answer this question from my perspective, but ultimately, Hr. Mayor, only~ can ansv1er it a~d to do this you must begin seeking help from the people of this .city who want the turmoil to end, not those in whose interest it is to continue it •. Louise Day Hicks has crea.ted a monster which even she cannot control. You have got to stop looking to her to solve the problem \"'hich she played a major role in creating. Background In the fall of 1974, there were very few citizens of this city prepared to implement the Garrity Phase I order. Despite this, Neighborhood Safety Tea.ms, • ~organized by your administration, did a remarkable job of keeping peace in . ~ost ·neighborhoods of the city. Through the efforts of these teams and the efforts of . my staff, hundreds of volunte~r citizens were .on the streets, at bus stops, and • in schools to assist children and parents. ·Nevertheless, Southie blew up and we began our ordeaJ. At a meeting in .your of.fke--2-weeks· after school opened ·in ; .. - .J- •• I •. 1974 a noted ROAR leader, who at that time had adopted a moderate position, told you that if Southie and the violence there were not isolated and made to be the enemy, then she could not hold out and we would ultimately have a race war on our hands in this city. Those were prophetic v10rds, unfortunately. Why? I would submit that Southie blew and Charlestown followed a year later (although to a lesser degree) because community leadership in those areas chose to resist the court order. Oth.er neighborhoods did not react tha f way because . people in those neighborhoods worked to prevent it. Violence or threats of it will dissipate in communities only ~1hen the'people Hho live there refuse to tolerate it any longer. In most neighborhoods of this--city,· people have· ·doiie this. Has anyone noticed -- does anyone care? I would venture a guess, based on my experience, that if a referendum on busing were held today, the people of this city would be oven1helmingly opposed ·, to it •. I would also contend, hoHever, that if a referendum on ROAR were held, - the opposition to ROAR would also be 'oventhelming. The people of this city know where the violence stems from, Hr. Mayor, and so do you. let me try to show you in graphic political terms what I mean. last year, in the midst of significant turmoil around Hyde Park High School, the Home and School Association held its election among chapter presidents for Regional Representative. Fran Johnnene, a noted ROAR leader and the incumbent, was defeated by a moderate candidate by a vote of 12 to 3~ This year.,"when __those s~me. elections were held, Richard laws, another noted ROAR leader, Has defeated • by a moderate candidate ·by a vote of 18- 1! Why? Because a coalition of moderate whites (th_ere are very few blacks in the Home and School Association) ·and militant anti-busing whites {aff1liated with the Hyde Park Information Center) . came together to _repudiate ROAR. In .the midst-of this· year·•s- election in Hyde • .. ' -4- Park one of the ROAR leaders, in an attempt to garner votes, commented that Judy Com't'ay, a member. of my staff who is presently hospita 1i zed fo~ b~ck surgery after a fall at our offic~, was responsible for all the problems in Hyde Park and that she had gotten exactly what she deserved. He.. further stated that the real story of her :injury was "that she had been beaten up by five niggers in Roxbury and they should have split her head open ... This is what we've come to. Hr. Hayor! But _this ·hatred lost again this time because no · one-~ moderates or anti-busers -- wants it any more. Hatred is a cancer which is destroying our city and ~must cu~ it_out so that the good and decent people of this city. who can and will live with one another's differences, can begin the process of healing • . Where are these people? The Neighborhoods Hoderates live in every neighborhood of this city and I could give you 50 names from every neighborhood, if you~d ask. In Dorchester -- there are people like Kit Clark, Paul Quirk, Jane Margulis, Rep. Richard Finnigan, Delores Mitchell, Rita Tomasini, and do zens of others who walked the streets of Savin Hill in the fall of 1974 to assure that their neighborhood didn't become another Sbuthie - that's neighborhood pride, Mr. Mayor~· . They are folks like Olive Costello, Ed Farrell, and Michael Traft and ·others ·in D.U.N.A. who~ although strongly opposed to busing, have worked all yea~.to try to develop a workable desegregation plan for Dorchester. In ·the North Erid -- there are the anti-busing parents at the Michaelangelo ·school who welco~ed black and Chinese children into their school and worked to make it a model for the city. ~ ~ ,; -. J -5- •. In Jamaica Plain there are the hundreds of volunteers who manned _every bus stop in that corrimunity in both th.e fall of· 1974 a·nd 1975 · and . we have seen the results -- Jamaica Plain hasn't had the problems of other communities even though the ingredients are there. last year's Agassiz Community School election. must have shown you something. In Brighton-~ there are the hundreds of people who stood.up to ROAR in Oece~ber of 1974 and told _th em to go home at a meeting in which Msgr. Stapelton o·f St.Colwmkii .le's parish characterized ROAR's tactics as . sickenly reminiscent, of the Nazi Germany he had seen in the 1930's. In South Boston.-_- _t_h_e_r_e_ _(!.re the 50 South Boston High School parents . (black and white) who travelled all over this city last year to find secret places to meet so that their kids could go to school and they could try to begip to deal with the problems. I could go on and on Mr. MayorL-through Roslindales West Roxburys East Bostons Roxbury, Mattapan, Charlestown, the South. End, etc.--but the message is the same-- people don't love busing but they can, will and have accepted it be- • cause it ·is the 1aw and the thing that they f e_ar the mast is the absence of 1aw and the fear, violence and anarchy which that· brings. ' leadership The real leadership of this city is in the neighborhoods mentioned above. - . • White parents from Dorchester know that Hhen Southie erupts and black children · are targets, it isn't ROAR's kids v1ho will pay the price, it is theirs. When a white student from the Jeremiah Burke, who has gone to school for 2 years with .· no eroblems, goes to night school at Engli~h High and gets beaten up ~s he waits for a bus on ·Huntington Avenue .. because some black. kids must avenge .