Northeastern University - Cauldron Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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A state policeman patrols in front of South Boston High School, scene of the worst incidents of racial disorder in 1974 following its integration by busing. In the background, idle schoolbuses wait to return students to their homes in Boston, paigning. His re-election organiza- tions operate full time during off years, city expenditures are done carefully, with an eye toward put- ting money where it ' ll do the most good in the community and on election day. Patronage is con- trolled like the well-oiled machine it was under the man who was prob- ably the greatest political mayor in Boston ' s history, James Michael Curley. National eyes are on the city and its chief administrator. It is only re- cently that the mayor ' s frequent ex- cursions across country in quest of the Democratic nod have brought him before the eyes of the voting public. These trips to conferences, conventions, and caucuses along with the mayor ' s habit of entertain- ing national visitors at Beacon Hill ' s Parkman House have added more fuel to the Dump White move- ment that has been begun by many formerly moderate areas from where he had drawn his support. It has always been to Kevin White ' s best advantage that the city be run as quietly, cleanly, and efficiently as possible, and that its residents be like the people of Swit- zerland, plump, pleased, and politi- cal in so far as it is necessary to keep things the way they are. This idyllic state of affairs was a dream that was shattered in 1974 with the coming of the infamous school desegregation order of Fed- eral District Court Judge Arthur J. Garrity, a sword that had been waved over the heads of the city and its school committee for over 1 years. The day the sword fell will go down in Boston school books as being as black as the closing of the harbor and the Intolerable Acts. There is a whole cadre of local politicians who built careers over the last decade on the guarantee that desegregation would never be put into effect. Playing on the fears of the people in the neighborhoods who preferred things like they were and could not see what right the gov- ernment had telling people where they could or could not go to school, these pols promised some- thing they could not deliver and did so quite effectively — they even believed themselves that it was a promise they would never be called up on, the federal government couldn ' t do that here. And so, the John Kerrigans, the Dapper O ' Neils, the Billy Bulgers, and the Raymond Flynns have built solid constituencies against the faceless enemy. But suddenly, the enemy was clearly visible. It was the federal government, specifically the courts; it was the mayor who was forced to do his unpopular job in upholding the court ' s order that unleashed le- gions of blacks into white neighbor- hood schools and bused hundreds of children crosstown when an adequate (albeit unbalanced ) school was down the block. The most famous of these popu- lar pols is the former South Boston 10

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-. ■«p; fc - Ellin f ?i - ma i ' - ■ 1 iH«i . 1 fttk, ' ' ' ' -jtfwto A quiet spring scene by the Fenway provides some relaxation for students in Boston ' s Back Bay section. The bridge is located just across the street from the Museum of Fine Arts. this country every year and they remain in these areas either per- manently or until they get married or are forced to move to find a job. But the relative tranquility of the neighborhoods has been shattered by a political and social storm that had been brewing for some time. Politicians were always assumed to be generally crooked and were tol- erated as long as they delivered. Kevin Hagen White has been mayor of the city since 1967. In 1975 he faces another tough fight for the job he now hopes will give him a lift into the national political arena. An unsuccessful candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 1970 and an almost last-minute vice presidential alternative to Sen. Thomas Eagleton in 1972, he has gotten close enough to such power to taste it, and now, if critics are to be believed, must have it at any cost. And that cost is the city of Bos- ton. He must restrain the passions of all the elements, pro and con, in the city. He must try to bandage, if not heal, the wounds caused by blight and unemployment and race and crime and keep the city from bleeding to death, from dying un- der his care. And how does this work for the people of Boston? Quite well, actually. White has always been elected as a candidate of moderation. Al- though liberal, he was always a clear choice against more radical thought on both sides of the fence. This clearly defined but usually tough competition each time he has run for re-election has kept him sharp. He by no means has ever had tenure. There always was, if only in the beginning of each race, at least the impression given that the mayor was in the running and not just expecting to sit aside and recieve a rubber stamp for another four years. White, in fact, never stops cam-

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housewife and attorney, Louise Day Hicks. Councilwoman Hicks, who began as a strong voice against the black activism of the sixties, is a perennial candidate who worked her way up from a non-salaried po- sition on the school committee through the council and into the United States House of Represent- atives. She was seriously men- tioned for the second spot of George Wallace ' s 1968 American Party National ticket. Only the may- or ' s office has eluded her. Hicks, who last ran for the may- oralty spot in 1971 (under the eu- phemistic slogan, You know where I stand ), like the other neighborhood pols, is extremely ac- tive behind the scenes of the newly formed citizens groups who op- pose the busing order. These school committeemen and councils attend the rallies for groups such as Restore Our Alien- ated Rights (ROAR) and lend credi- bility to the actions of the crowds. The white people of B oston are faced with a repetition of history. The people affected by busing are in the same situation as the black community in the sixties. The people of South Boston and elsewhere see busing as leading to the destruction of their commu- nities. The law is unpopular. These laws are being enforced by a gov- ernment outside their community seemingly without regard for the consequences. Police have moved into the areas in strength. Actions by the Boston Tactical Police Force and the state police are now directed against the people who have always supported the police in their actions against lawbreakers. The people are in- volved in a crisis. The laws they thought protected them are being enforced against them. The school committee in 1974 was elected entirely on an anti-bus- ing slate. The 1975 mayoralty prom- ises to be run on the same issue, with Flynn, Bulger, and Christopher lannella as sure candidates. Outraged city residents came out on a cold, blustery day in December, 1974 to protest the busing of their children to other schools i Boston. More than 1,000 persons attended. The rallies were staged weekly during the fall. •■■• tshb i T PI SAKl IICHT SOSTM M