Forty years ago: Desegregation in Boston Public Schools
Boston, Massachusetts, has long been a crucible for social, cultural, and political change. But Boston is also a city of contradictions.
Forty years ago, a group of parents filed a formal complaint in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts. The case beings with this simple sentence: âThis is a class action brought by black children attending the Boston public schools and their parents.â
Tallulah Morgan et al. v. James W. Hennigan et al., United States District Court Civil Action Case File No. 72-911-Gâknown as the Boston schools desegregation caseâoccupies 54 large storage boxes in the National Archives at Boston. The case was presented over a period of two years, and on June 21, 1974, Federal Judge W. Arthur Garrity ruled that the School Committee of the City of Boston had âintentionally brought about and maintained racial segregationâ in the Boston public schools.
The response to the implementation was protest, at times violent, but eventually the Boston Public Schools would change.
During the summer of 2014, a group of educators from across the countryâelementary through collegeâspent a week at the National Archives at Boston and Chicago studying issues of civil rights.
They scanned documents like the above letter from Mrs. Sumner Bernstein. She wrote to Boston Public Schools Superintendent Leary explaining how her initial support of Boston school desegregation turned to anger and fear after her daughterâs experience at Boston English (10/22/1974, from the Records of District Courts of the United States). All of the newly digitized documents are available online by entering âPrimarily Teaching 2014â in the documents search box.
They also used these newly digitized primary sources to create online teaching activities related to education equality:
What does it mean? Boston School Desegregation
Formulating Questions About A Primary Source from Morganv. Hennigan
Different Perspectives: Boston School Desegregation
An Introduction to Morgan v. HenniganÂ
Civil Rights in Education: Legal Complaints in Morgan v.HenniganÂ
Who were the stakeholders in the desegregation of Boston Public
Schools?
Minority groups during desegregation of Boston Public Schools
Evaluating Police Protection during Boston Schools DesegregationÂ
Alleged Segregation in Chicago Public Schools in 1960s
School Experience in Chicago, 1950â1961
You can create your own activities on this subject with the tools available on DocsTeach!
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