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Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryCurriculum ObjectivesContent:1. To learn about people, philosophies, tactics and events that happened both nationally and locallyduring the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s2. To research the background of the Civil Rights Movement in Boston by examining the records of theBoston School Committee3. To learn about the inequities that existed for African Americans in Boston during the 1960s, in theareas of housing, employment, education and health4. To learn about the Freedom Movement in Boston, with emphasis on the Stay-Outs and FreedomSchools, Operation Exodus and the visit of Martin Luther King to Boston in April of 19655. To become familiar with the names of some the leaders of the movement in Boston in the 1960s.These leaders include Noel Day, Virgil Wood, Ruth Batson, Melnea Cass, James Breeden, GlendoraPutnam, Horace Selden, Ted Landsmark, Mel King,W. Arthur Garrity and many others.6. To collect the stories of people who experienced the events of the 1960s and 70s in Boston.Skills:1. To analyze statistics about areas of discrimination by using demographic data as evidence2. To understand the methods historians use to draw conclusions from demographic information3. To read and analyze maps to draw conclusions about the significance of population shifts4. To differentiate among descriptions, inferences and value judgments when examining and analyzingprimary sources and images5. To synthesize and evaluate information researched in documents, images and films by writingreflections and short essays6. To work as a group to prepare a short oral presentation7. To develop and carry out an oral history interview8. To present a summary and analysis of the oral history project in a written narrative or paneldiscussionDeeper Understandings:1. The Civil Rights Movement occurred in northern cities as well as the South2. The Movement had roots in a time before the activism of the 1960s3. Individuals in Boston took actions that eventually affected institutions and resulted in change4. First person narratives powerfully communicate past events.Essential Questions:1. How does change happen?2. Do people make history or vice versa?3. Can learning about the past change the learner?5101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryPART IBOSTON’S AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY IN 1960:GROWING NUMBERS AND CONTINUING INEQUITIESLesson 1: Interpreting Statistics and Maps about the African American Community inBostonIn this activity, students will consider statistics affecting the African American community. Noel Dayoffered statistical data from the 1960 census, as well as from other sources, to paint a picture of life inBoston for African Americans at that time. In addition to population statistics, Day quoted relevant dataabout housing, education, employment and health as the basis of his description of the city in the early1960s. This lesson uses the data to ask students to make observations, inferences and judgments based onthe numbers.Materials included:! A list of statistics about Boston in 1960! A series of maps of African-American population migration from 1940-1970! A list of questions for students to considerTime needed: One class periodStudent Activities:1. Ask students to read through and study the statistics handout and the population migration map. Havethem record their immediate questions and reactions.2. After examining the materials, have students consider the questions on the student worksheet. Discussthe answers as a whole class, concentrating on the inferences and connections made.6101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 1: Student Handout AStatistics and Questions about Boston’s African American Community in 1960Population Statistics:1. In 1960 the population of Boston totaled approximately 640,000.2. Approximately 64,000 African Americans lived in the city, about 10% of the total population.3. About 1/3 of the African Americans in Boston had arrived here since 1950.4. The African American population of Boston increased by 50% between 1950 and 1960. During thatsame time the total population of the city decreased by 13%.5. Of the 64,000 African Americans in Boston, only 1,500 lived outside the communities of Roxbury,the South End, and North Dorchester.Housing Statistics:1. According to the 1960 census, 40% of the units open to African American occupancy weredilapidated or deteriorated.2. Rents in African American neighborhoods were 37% higher than the rents for comparable housingpaid by whites.3. Fifteen percent of African American Bostonians lived in overcrowded conditions, as opposed by 7%of whites.4. Twenty five percent of African Americans paid 30% of their income for rent.5. African Americans, who constituted 10% of the population of Boston, occupied 30% of thesubstandard housing.Education Statistics:1. According to the United Community Services of Boston’s report, “Profile for Planning,” 38.7% of theadults in North Dorchester and 52.8% of the adults in the South End had an eighth grade education orless.2. Seven of the 58 schools in Boston were at least 90% black.3. Sixty percent of African American students in Boston dropped out of school before graduating.4. From Noel Day’s article: “Less money per capita was spent in African American schools, there weremore substitutes, less guidance counselors, fewer and older textbooks and teaching materials, moreovercrowding (as many as 45 children per classroom), older buildings, and a higher drop-out rate(estimated at three out of every five African American students.)”Employment Statistics:1. 44.1 % of African Americans living in North Dorchester and 66% of those living in the South Endearned less than $5,000; these percentages of low-income earners were higher than in any othersection of Boston.2. Approximately 15% of people in the African American community were unemployed, twice thepercentage of unemployed workers in other parts of the city.3. The average income of African American families was approximately 50% of that of white families.Health Statistics:1. The infant mortality rate in the African American community was 30% greater than the rest of thecity.2. The tuberculosis rate in the community was one and a half to two and a half times greater than therest of the city.Source: “The Freedom Movement in Boston” by Noel Day, 1964. Data compiled from the 1960 United Statescensus.7101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 1: Student Handout BMap: The Second Great Migration: African-American Population, 1940-1970Source: InMotion: The African American Migration Experience, the Schomburg Center for Research inBlack Culture. Available online at: http://www.inmotionaame.org/8101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

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Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Story15101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org




Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 2 - Document Folder 22.2.1 Martin Luther King March on Boston flyerDescribes reasons for marching to City Hall and the School Committee.2.2.2 Southern Christian Leadership Conference brochure (1965)In April 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King led 50,000 people in a March on Boston to protestsegregated housing conditions and racially imbalanced schools. Includes:*March Instructions*Freedom Songs*Freedom Rally*Message from Rev. Virgil A. Wood*Message from Dr. Martin L. KingFrom the Phyllis M. Ryan papers, Northeastern University Library.Available here and online at:http://www.dac.neu.edu/library/archives/voices/aa-political10.htm2.2.3 Photo: Supporters greet Martin Luther King Jr. in Boston in 1965.Available online at:http://montevideo.usembassy.gov/usaweb/paginas/2006/06-010EN.shtml2.2.4 Photo: Martin Luther King, Jr. in Boston during the April 1965 march.Martin Luther King, Jr. in Boston during the April 1965 march.Photo available online at: http://www.onlinegreensboro.com/~spirit/wp-admin/images/gil.jpg19101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org


















Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 2: Student WorksheetDirections: Working in a small group, carefully examine the image and read the documents in yourfolder. Work together to answer the questions below as a group. Make sure to consider the differencesamong descriptions, inferences, and judgment.1) Describe the materials in your folder. Look for the details. Do not make inferences at this point. It maynot be possible to answer all of these questions at this point.• Who are the participants in the event or initiative? Who is the intended audience? Who is thecreator of the document?• What is happening? What philosophy is guiding the participants?• If an event, where and when is it taking place?2) Make inferences about what happened.• Why did this happen?• What goals did the participants and organizers have in mind?• What motivated the participants? The organizers?• If an event, how did the public respond?• What did the leaders hope would happen?3) Make judgments about what happened.• Was this an effective means to make change?• What other kinds of actions could or should have been tried?• Was the leadership effective?• Was the rhetoric effective?4) Identify a scribe from your group to record a short report about your group’s work with the folder ofprimary sources. Include questions about these materials that you could not answer; if necessary ask forhelp from your classmates and teacher.39101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 3: Digging Deeper - Using a Timeline to Develop an Understanding ofthe Civil Rights Movement in BostonBackgroundThe late Gerald Gill, a professor at Tufts University, researched and wrote much of the material for thistimeline. The timeline also draws from Jim Vrabel’s book, When in Boston: A Time Line and Almanac,published by Northeastern University Press in 2004. Other sources include the Teachers’ Guide to “TheLong Road to Justice” curriculum written by Roberta Logan for Primary Source and published in 2000.Even though the focus of this series of activities is the Civil Rights Movement in Boston during the 1960sand 1970s, the timeline stretches back to the 1930s since many of the efforts of civil rights activistsduring the mid-twentieth century must be seen in their historic context in order to be fully understood.Education events appear in italics.Materials:! A Timeline of Civil Rights Activism in Boston, 1930-1977! A note-taking guide for Activity 1Time needed: This will depend on the choice of activity.Student Activities:1. Pick out five names that you recognize. Conduct a short research project about these people and write abiographical sketch of each person, using the data you collected.Include the following:! A photograph of the person,! Background information like family, education, occupation accomplishments,! A relevant quotation.2. Research and add ten relevant events that happened after 1968.3. Using the population data at the beginning of each decade, create a bar graph or a line graph to showthe growth of the African American population in Boston.4. Identify the events that center on one or more of the following topics: education, housing, employment,organizations and protests. Write a short paper describing trends you can detect. Can you make anygeneralizations about the Civil Rights Movement in Boston based on this information?40101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 3: Timeline-Student Handout1930 – Boston’s Black population was 20,574 or 2.63% of the city’s population.1931 – Dr John Hall II interned at Boston City Hospital, the first African American to do so.1933 – William Monroe Trotter led a demonstration, urging African American businessmen to hireAfrican American employees. It is activist Melnea Cass’ first demonstration.1934 – Death of crusading activist and editor of the Boston Guardian, William Monroe Trotter.1934 – League of Struggle for Negro Rights began campaign to have supermarkets on Tremont Street hireBlack males for positions as clerks and managers.1934 Edward Cooper hired and retained as manager of First National supermarket on Columbus Avenue.1935 – Butler Wilson, longtime president of Boston NAACP, stepped down and was replaced by IrwinDorch. During Dorch’s tenure, NAACP would begin campaigns to combat employment discrimination inthe city’s insurance companies and public utilities.1936 – Five Black women (including Ruth Worthy) hired as part-time clerks at Woolworth’s in LowerRoxbury.1937 – NAACP Youth Council staged demonstration to pressure the manager of a movie house in DudleySquare to hire Black ushers.1940 – Boston’s Black population is 23,679 or 3.06% of the city’s population.1941 – Boston affiliate of the National Negro Congress set up picket lines in front of supermarket inRoxbury. Picketing campaign led to the hiring of two Black workers.1941 – The Ritz Carlton directed staff to serve all guests regardless of their race.1939-1942 – J. Caswell Smith assumed position of executive secretary of Boston affiliate of UrbanLeague.1939-1940 – Seaton Manning assumed position of industrial secretary of Boston affiliate of UrbanLeague. Manning would be particularly interested in the problems of Black workers.1942-1945 – Growth of dues-paying membership of Boston NAACP from 1600 to 3500.1943 – National Urban League affiliate sought expanded job opportunities for Black male and femaleworkers in Boston-area defense industries.1943 – Coalition of Black activists called for the hiring of more Black police officers and the hiring ofBlack workers in the city’s public utilities, as sales clerks in downtown department stores and astelephone operators, and for positions other than janitors on city buses and trolleys.41101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Story1943 – Boston Housing Authority opened up separate housing for black and white residents at OrchardPark. In the 1930s separate housing units had been built in South Boston and in Roxbury on Lenox Street.1944 – Julian Steele elected branch president of the NAACP.1944 – Strayer Report, a study and general survey of the Boston Public School System, pointed out thatthe School Committee interfered with the administration of the schools and that the School Committeehad become a political springboard. In addition, the report found that Boston “school houses” were notgood buildings and that schools in Roxbury and the South End were among the city’s oldest facilities andwere “unsafe”.1944 – Cynthia Belgrave Ferris hired at Gilchrists as a holiday season wrapper. Other women were hiredat Jordan Marsh.1945 – NAACP’s became involved in the case of the WACs at Fort Devens1945 – Black Women hired as telephone operators by New England Telephone.1945 -- Adelaide Cromwell Hill hired as an instructor at Smith College.1945 – Black and white members of the local United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers went onstrike. Three years later, members of the United Packinghouse Workers went on strike. The BostonChronicle and Boston Guardian, individual Black clergy, and the NAACP Youth Council supported thestriking workers.1945-1946 -- Massachusetts activists called for the creation of a state Fair Employment PracticesCommission. Such a state agency was created in 1946, and in 1950 was renamed as the MassachusettsCommission Against Discrimination.1945–1948 – Caswell Smith returned to position as Executive Secretary of Boston affiliate of the UrbanLeague. In 1946 annual report, Smith mentioned that New England Telephone and Telegraph Companyhad hired 60 to 75 Negroes.1946 – Reverend Kenneth P. Hughes elected NAACP branch president.1946 – Members of NAACP Youth Council staged demonstrations in downtown Boston against thoseinsurance companies that still did not hire Black men and women for white collar positions.1947 – John Lane elected president of Boston branch of NAACP.1947 – Black activists protested the small, and in some instances non-existent, number of Blackmunicipal employees in Boston.1947 – Local activists express concern at the low number of African-American, Jewish-American, Irish-American, and Italian-American students admitted and enrolled in Commonwealth institutions of highereducation (as undergraduate, graduate, or professional degree students).42101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Story1948–1951 – Mrs. Florence Lesueur elected as first woman president of Boston NAACP. During heradministration, membership among Boston’s Black working class initially swelled the branchmembership. However, branch membership declined in 1950 as a result of the Loyalty Act; the NAACPhad to purge its ranks of individuals who had been or who were members of the Communist Party.1948 -- G. Bruce Robinson was appointed special justice of the Boston Juvenile Court, making him thefirst African American to sit on the Massachusetts bench in the twentieth century.1948 – Social workers Muriel and Otto Snowden established Freedom House in Upper Roxbury.1949 – Citizens Committee Against Police Brutality protested against “police reign of terror.”1949 – Dr. Charles Bonner is the first African American staff physician at Boston City Hospital.1949 – Representatives of the Civil Rights Congress staged ongoing demonstrations against the TimothySmith Company, as the store had not hired any Black employees.1949 – Boston affiliate of Urban League focused efforts on campaigns against discrimination andsegregation based on race in the allocation of housing.1949 – Harvard University Medical School belatedly promoted Dr. William A. Hinton from his 35-yearinstructorship at the Medical School to the rank of full professor. Harvard offered a tenuredprofessorship, which was not accepted, to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ralph J. Bunche.1950 – Boston’s Black population was 40,057 or 5% of the city’s total population.1951 – Boston Housing Authority announced that housing projects to be built in Brighton and atColumbia Point were not to be segregated on the basis of race.1951–1954 – Lionel Lindsay would be elected as NAACP branch president and would serve as branchpresident for three years.1951 – Ruth Batson, executive secretary of the Parents’ Federation of Greater Boston, ran unsuccessfullyfor the Boston School Committee. As a parent, Batson had been critical of the overcrowded andantiquated schools in her neighborhood.1953 – Lionel Lindsay appointed Ruth Batson as chair of the local NAACP’s education subcommittee.The subcommittee was “charged with the responsibility of advocating for students attending Bostonpublic schools.”1954 – The Brown v. Board of Education decision to prohibit segregation in public school cited Robertsv. City of Boston (1846).1954 – Edward O. Gourdin became the first African American to serve as associate Justice of theMassachusetts Superior Court.1954–1959 – Larkland Hewitt and Herbert Tucker were presidents of Boston NAACP. The NAACPsupported job fairs and workshops and sought to establish programs to combat juvenile delinquency.43101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Story1954–1958 – Urban League supported job placement programs, “stay in school program,” and vocationalguidance programs. The Urban League affiliate sought to have African-Americans hired in the city’shotels in positions other than maids, in the airline industry as mechanics, ticket agents, and as members offlight crews, and in the city’s banks and insurance companies.1959 – Red Sox promoted Elijah “Pumpsie” Green to the major league team after sustained campaign bythe NAACP, Boston Chronicle and the Ministerial Alliance.1959 – Ruth Batson, a community activist, loses her bid to be on the Boston School Committee.1960 – Boston’s Black population was 63,165, or 9.06% of the city’s total population.1960 – Boston area wide support for southern Black students participating in sit-ins grew.1960 – Boston chapter of CORE revitalized.1961 – African Descendants Freedom Movement, a group of graduate and professional students at BostonUniversity staged a demonstration when President Kennedy visited campus. ADFM members protestedthe failure of the Kennedy administration to offer protection to freedom riders.1961 – Higginson School District parents organize to express concerns about conditions at the David A.Ellis School in Roxbury.1961 – Social worker and activist Mel King ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Boston SchoolCommittee. King would run again in 1953 and 1965.1961 – Members of CORE picketed Sears and Roebuck, urging the department store to hire its first Blacksales clerk. Campaign would be successful.1961 – Royal Bolling filed legislation to require banks to loan 40% of their mortgage money to borrowersin their communities. It did not pass.1962 – CORE waged successful campaign to have the Trailways Bus Company hire its first Black ticketagent.1962 – Boston Action Group (BAG) staged a boycott of Wonder Bread until company hired Black men asdelivery route drivers.1960–1962 – Mrs. Melnea Cass served a president of Boston NAACP. During her tenure the NAACP,working in cooperation with the Women’s Service Club, fought to improve the salaries and workcondition of Black teenagers and women who were recruited from the South to work as domestics inhomes of suburban families.1963–1968 – Kenneth Guscott elected as president of the Boston NAACP.1963 – Demonstrators marched on Boston Common in support of civil rights activities in Birmingham,Alabama.June 11, 1963 – Picket campaigns started in front of Boston School Committee headquarters.44101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryJune 18, 1963 – One-day boycott of Boston Public Schools took place.June 1963 – Ruth Batson testified before the Boston School Committee, stating that Boston Schoolsengage in de facto segregation. Students participate in a “Stay Out” boycott and attend freedom schools.June 23, 1963 – Members of STOP urged a General Work Strike in Boston to protest a variety of causes,including discrimination in the hiring of Negroes, police brutality, de facto segregation in Boston PublicSchools, and discrimination in public and private housing.June 26, 1963 – Tribute to assassinated Mississippi Field Secretary Medgar Evers held on BostonCommon.September 5, 1963 – NAACP sit-in took place at the Boston School Committee.September 22, 1963 – March on Roxbury occurred.February 26, 1964 – Students boycotted classes in Boston Public Schools and the community establishedof freedom schools.March 17, 1964 – NAACP entered a float in St. Patrick’s Day Parade in South Boston.1964 – Sue Bailey Thurman established the Museum of Afro-American History.1963–1964 -- CORE and BAG campaigned successfully against the hiring policies of Hood DairyCompany, First National Bank, and United Farmers Milk Company1964 – CORE led protests against dilapidated rental housing in Roxbury. Tactics featured rent strikes andthe picketing of landlords’ homes in the suburbs.September 1964 – Roxbury mothers sat in at School Committee to protest Boston School Committee’stransfer policy of students to the Boardman School.April 1, 1965 – Report of Advisory Committee on Racial Imbalance and Education issued. The reportfound racial imbalance in Boston schools and called for the closing of eleven Boston schools and theconstruction of newer and bigger buildings.April 22, 1965 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed both houses of the General Court ofMassachusetts.April 23, 1965 – Dr. King led a march in Boston.April 26, 1965 – Reverend Vernon Carter began a 114-day vigil outside the Boston School Committeeheadquarters.1965 – J. Marcus Mitchell presented a prototype of the Black Heritage Trail.1965 – Two hundred demonstrators sat in for two days at the federal building in Boston to protest themurder of Reverend James Reeb in Selma, Alabama.45101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryAugust 1965 –Ellen Jackson and others founded Operation Exodus, which provides transportation forAfrican American students to go to more integrated schools.1965 – The Bay State Banner appeared, with Bryant Rollins as the first editor.1966 – Metco was established, allowing minority students to be bused to suburban schools.June 1966 – Reverend Virgil Woods confronted school committee member Louise Day Hicks at thegraduation ceremony at the Patrick T. Campbell Junior High School.February 1967,– Mel King became the director of the New Urban League.June 2, 1967 – Mothers for Adequate Welfare staged a sit-in at the Grove Hall Welfare Office. Efforts toevict the women led to confrontation between Boston police and local residents that culminated whatlocal activists termed as a “police riot” at Grove Hall.November 1967 – Thomas Atkins was elected to Boston City Council.April 4, 1968 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated in Memphis.April 5, 1968 – James Brown Concert at Boston Garden was held. The concert would be an effort to keepBlack teenagers and young adults off city streets in the aftermath of the King assassination.1968 – Nearly five thousand people attended a rally at White Stadium in Franklin Park.Organized by the Black United Front, the demonstrators demanded an end to discrimination.1968 – Students protested at English High School after a student was denied entrance forwearing a dashiki.1968 – The Unity Bank opens, a full service Black bank in Boston.1968 – WGBH began to air Say Brother on subjects relating to the African Americancommunity of Boston.1969 – Mel King protested the treatment of Boston’s African American community at aUnited Way luncheon at the Statler-Hilton Hotel.1969 – The William Monroe Trotter schools opened as a magnet school to encourage integration.1970 – The Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts performed the first production of Black Nativity.1972 – Doris Bunte became the first African American woman elected to the Massachusetts statelegislature.1972 – The class action suit, Morgan v. Hennigan, was filed in federal district court in Boston, chargingthe Boston School Committee with deliberately creating two school systems, one for blacks and one forwhites.46101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Story1973 -- Roxbury Community College was established.1974 – A report by the Boston Observatory concluded that residential property in Dorchester andRoxbury was assessed at three times the rate of property in other communities.1974 -- William Owens became the first African American elected to the Massachusetts State Senate.1974 – William Arthur Garrity ruled for the plaintiffs in Morgan v. Hennigan and ordered busing fourthousand students to desegregate Boston Public Schools.1975 – After whites at Carson Beach in South Boston attacked six African Americans from SouthCarolina, forty people were injured during a demonstration that was held in response to the event.1976 – After an anti-busing demonstration, a high school student attacked African American attorneyTheodore Landsmark in City Hall Plaza using an American flag as a weapon.1977 – John O’Bryant became the first African American elected to the Boston School Committee since1895.47101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 3: Student Worksheet A Notetaking Guide for the Timeline Research ProjectDirections: Use the following organizer to take notes about people from the timeline:1. NAME:a. Family:b. Education:c. Occupation:d. Accomplishments:e. Relevant Quotations:2. NAME:a. Family:b. Education:c. Occupation:d. Accomplishments:e. Relevant Quotations:3. NAME:a. Family:b. Education:c. Occupation:d. Accomplishments:e. Relevant Quotations:48101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 4: The Road to Desegregation: Speaking Up, Speaking Out (June 1963)Background“What happens to a dream deferred?” the first line of a poem by Langston Hughes poses apowerful question for any person at any moment in history. African Americans of each generation haveunderstood the efficacy of literacy and education; it has been a particularly important vehicle foradvancement in a society whose founding documents claim that all are created equal but in which AfricanAmericans have been particularly aware that equality has often been restricted by race.Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, there were demonstrations and protests for equality throughoutthe United States. The most famous of these protests were in Little Rock, Arkansas; Birmingham,Alabama; and Montgomery, Alabama; southern cities. The struggles for civil rights in northern cities areless well known, but equally important. According to one community activist, Boston’s African Americancommunity was “like a simmering pressure cooker.” To emphasize the conditions that underlie thisstatement he recounted that there were few blacks in police, fire, schools, MBTA, department stores.June 11, 1963 was a momentous day internationally, nationally, and locally. A VietnameseBuddhist monk Thích Quang Duc commited self-immolation to protest the oppression of Buddhists bythe Diem administration. Alabama Governor George C. Wallace stood in the door of the University ofAlabama to protest integration. President John F. Kennedy made an historic civil rights speech, in whichhe promised a Civil Rights Bill, and asked for "the kind of equality of treatment that we would want forourselves."During that evening’s Boston School Committee meeting, The NAACP, African Americanparents and community activists, presented letters and testimonies expressing their frustration with thelack of educational opportunities for children of color attending Boston Public Schools. Between 1963and 1974 there were school committee meetings, protests, and boycotts. Legislation was filed requesting,urging, demanding that the Boston School Committee develop and implement plans to foster integrationand equal funding and care of facilities of Boston’s schools. School committee records and newspaperarticles have documented the efforts of parents, community activists, and religious leaders as theynegotiated, protested and brought legal cases in an effort to desegregate Boston Public Schools. Thisbattle culminated in the 1974 United States District Court case, Morgan v. Hennigan, which, after elevenyears, brought about the desegregation of Boston Public Schools.Objectives:! To research the background of the Civil Rights Movement in Boston by examining the records ofthe Boston School Committee! To learn about the inequities that existed for African Americans in Boston during the 1960s, inthe areas of housing, employment, education and healthOrganizing Idea:The day-to-day experiences of children and parents galvanized parents’ demands for accountability of theschool committee and the desegregation of Boston Public Schools. Their activism and agency providedthe support for negotiation and protest by the African American community, led by the NAACP,ministers and community activists.Key Questions:! What events and issues galvanized the African American community leading to protests andschool boycotts?! How did the fight to end segregation in Boston Public Schools begin?49101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Story! What were the conditions in Boston Public Schools in 1963 for African American families?! What were the concerns of Boston’s families of color?Materials:Excerpts from the June 11, 1963 Boston Public School Committee meeting.Student Activities:1. As a preview to the issues of desegregation of Boston Public schools students should consider thefollowing questions:! Is there liberty and justice for all?! What happens to a dream deferred?! What are the conditions in Boston Public Schools, or any schools today, that need to beaddressed?2. Reading the statement read by Ruth Batson and the testimony of Mrs. Loon, students can analyze thesedocuments to answer the questions:! What were the conditions in Boston Public Schools in 1963 for African American families?! What were the concerns of Boston’s families of color?3. Students may write an op-ed piece that considers the question posed over forty years ago by Noel Day:“Why are our schools in Boston segregated?”50101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 4: Student Handout_________________________________________________________________________Excerpts from the transcript of June 11, 1963 Boston School Committee meeting" Questions posed by Mr. Noel Day executive director of St. Mark’s Social Center in Roxbury at theJune 11, 1963 School Committee meeting:“Why are our schools in Boston segregated?Why do we have 7,000 children attending segregated schools nine years and a monthafter the Supreme Court of the United States indicated that segregated schooling in theUnited States provided unequal education for Whites and for Negroes?Why must we appear here tonight to plead for integrated schools when in other citiesthroughout the North it had been found by courts that de facto segregation is asinherently evil as segregation under the law?” 1" Statement made by Mrs. Loon, a parent“You will have to bear with me because all this is new to me.I live in Dorchester, and my kiddos—I have two—go to the Sarah Greenwood School. I had aboy who misbehaved. He was talking in line. He got a rattan, which, in my opinion, he deserved. He wasexpelled from school. I went to school and I spoke with the teacher. I spoke to the teacher who called himout of line. This was his class. They were two men teachers; one of them gave him the rattan. I went upthere to see why he got it. Before I could find out why he got it, the teachers, the two men, were so busyexplaining to me that this was not a racial issue that when I get through finally, after I told them what Icame up for—because at the time I was eight months pregnant; I wasn’t there for any row—I wanted tofind out what my son did. I did not send him to school to misbehave, I sent him to school to mind.When we got all through that this was not a racial issue, the teacher couldn’t remember what hewas rattaned for. This is very true. So, after it was all over, I spoke to him. I brought him home. In fact, Igave him a spanking. I still did not get him back into school. I had to call one of the SchoolCommitteemen that took care of the Dorchester area, and they put him back into school. They had to callthe teacher that give him the rattan and his home classroom teacher.This is not conducive to any kind of school administration. This is wrong. I am not supposed tofeel that I have a child in school because of color. You are not supposed to feel that it is color. You aresupposed to feel what he is in school for: He is and I am. [check original?]This is all.The classroom is overcrowded. The Sarah Greenwood School, the William Endicott School—infact, like the teacher told me, there are 47 in one class. This is wrong. This is too many in one classroom,and the mothers, the housewives, in Dorchester, would like something done about it.This is all, and thank you very much.” 2" Excerpts from prepared statement delivered by Ruth Batson, chair of the Education Committee of thecity’s branch of the NAACP and a longtime parent-critic of the conditions in many of the city’spredominantly black schools.Madame Chairman, Members of the Boston School Committee:The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is an organization dedicated tothe elimination of discrimination and prejudice from all phases of American life. Our goal is First Class1 Transcript of Boston School Committee Meeting , June 11, 1963, p. 60.2 Transcript of Boston School Committee Meeting, June 11, 1963, p. 26-2751101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryCitizenship, and we will settle for nothing less. All immigrants to the American shores have suffered fromdiscrimination, but in most cases, as soon as they lost their identifying accents, they were able to blendinto the American culture and enjoy the fruits of our democratic system. The Negro, brought here inchains, bears visible identification of his race and we have spent our lives tearing down wall after wall ofresistance raised in our path, because of our color.Our most frustrating and devastating obstacles confronting us, is the lack of educationalopportunity. Education constitutes our strongest hope for pulling ourselves out of the inferior status towhich society has assigned us. For, a boy of eight or nine years, who is receiving an inferior educationtoday, will feel the effects at age thirty-five, forty-five and until he dies, as he struggles, as a father, toread and educate his children. His lack of educational opportunity will make it impossible for him tomotivate his children properly and thus, this burden is inherited by each succeeding generation. Since,you, our School Committee, are the caretakers of our educational school system, a job which each of yousought voluntarily, we are here tonight to express dissatisfaction, to air our complaints and to makecertain demands in connection with our schools.…Several years ago, I received permission from the then superintendent …to visit and interviewcertain principals. I interviewed six principals of predominantly Negro schools. Three of these principalsrefused to acknowledge the existence of any problems. They tossed off the complaints parents made and,in general, inferred that the NAACP was making a “mountain out of a molehill.” One principalacknowledged that it could be true that his graduates, 99% Negro, might have difficulty in high schoolwhen competing with students from all over Boston, because he stated “Negroes do not make their kidslearn.” He said further that we should (be) like Jewish parents, who see that their children learn. Anotherprincipal told me that she just didn’t think that Negroes could learn at the same rate as white children. Shehad just left a school in Roslindale, which was an all white school, and felt that she could come to thisconclusion. Another principal, very pleasant and affable, said that he saw no differences in children, andthat he was sure that his attitude was reflected in his staff. Time has proven that this rather nonchalantattitude did not produce the results desired by the complaining parents.…We are here because the clamor from the community is too anxious to be ignored, thedissatisfaction and complaints too genuine and deep seated to be passed over lightly, and the injusticespresent in our school system hurt our pride, rob us of our dignity and produce results which are injuriousnot only to our future, but to that of our city, our commonwealth and our nation. 33 This is a brief excerpt from a much longer document read at the Boston School Committee meeting June 11, 1963.Housed at the City of Boston Archives.52101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 5: Using Video to Draw Conclusions about Historic EventsBackgroundMoving into the 1970s, this activity concentrates on events surrounding the desegregation of the BostonPublic Schools in 1974. The episode from Eyes on the Prize, “The Keys to the Kingdom,” focuses on thedesegregation of the Boston Public Schools in 1974 following the federal court decision, Morgan v.Hennigan. Jacqueline Shearer, the producer of the episode, hoped to show the various roles and attitudesof women during the era of school desegregation in Boston. In this activity, students watch the video withthat objective in mind.Materials:! Eyes on the Prize, “The Keys to the Kingdom” video episode! A viewing guide for the video (Student Worksheet A)! A bio-poem (Student Worksheet B)Time needed: Two to three classes periods.Student Activities:1. Watch the episode, “The Keys to the Kingdom” from the video documentary series, Eyes on the Prize.Take notes using the viewing guide (Student Worksheet A).2. Lead a class discussion using one of the following techniques:A. The Fishbowl:! Ask each student to write one or two questions or comments about the film on an index card.! Choose six people to begin the discussion. Seat them in a circle of seven chairsarranged in the middle of the room. Leave one chair empty. Ask them to respond to the seriesof questions that is listed below. The rest of the class is arranged in a larger outer circle.When someone wants to join the inner circle to respond to s/he goes to the empty chair.Anyone may leave the original group of six voluntarily to be replaced by someone in theouter circle.! Include the following questions as well as those written by students on the index cards:o Which women did you choose? Why? Give a specific quotation or impression of at leastone of the people.o Which woman did you react to most strongly? Why?o Why do you think the filmmaker focused on women?o React to the film itself. What did you learn?o The film could be seen as an indictment of Boston. Do you think Boston has changed?How? Has the national image of Boston changed? What image do you think you willremember from the film?B. The Inside/Outside Circle:! After watching the film have everyone write a question about it on an index card.! Place half the students in an inner circle and half in any outer circle, facing each other.! Start the discussion by asking the questions listed above. After each students speaks to theperson s/he is facing, have the outer circle move one person to the right for the next question.! End the discussion by having the students ask questions from their own index card.53101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Story3. Students write about the video episode using one of these options:! Write a bio-poem. The instructions are included on a separate sheet in this packet. (StudentWorksheet B)! Write a letter. Imagine you were alive then and you want to tell one woman your feelings abouther participation in school desegregation. Or, have two students write letters to each other.! Write a newspaper editorial or draw an editorial cartoon about Boston School desegregation.! Write a journal or diary entry from the point of view of one of the women.54101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 5: Student Worksheet A - Viewing Guide for “The Keys to the Kingdom”Directions: As you watch the film, notice the emphasis the filmmaker places on the role of women inthe desegregation of the Boston Public Schools. Choose at least three women from the list below andnote their actions, words, attitudes, demeanors and ideas. (The following list is in alphabetical order,rather than order of appearance in the video.)Notes:Person #1:! Tracy Amalfitano! Ruth Batson! Jane Duwors! Phyllis Ellison! Louise Day Hicks! Ellen Jackson! Jean McGuire! Kathleen Stapleton! Juanita Wade! Alexzandrina YoungPerson #2:Person #3:55101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 5: Student Worksheet B - A Bio-Poem 4Line One First Name:Line Two Traits that describe the character (list 4):Line Three Lover of:Line Four Who feels:Line Five Who needs:Line Six Who fears:Line Seven Who gives:Line Eight Who would like to see:Line Nine Resident of:Line Ten Last Name:Example of a bio-poem describing a main character, in this case, “Crooks” from Of Mice and Men byJohn Steinbeck. Poem by David McIntire, Manchester Vermont, 1990CrooksAlone and black, bitter, hunchbacked,Friend of none but lonelinessLoves few things: companionship, hope and life itself,Feels the loneliness, the sorrows, the pain the agonies of life compounded.In need of a friend and a healthy body, a way to escape.In fear of the boss’s rage, the specter of death and the torment of whites.He teaches me the hardships of life, and that I have no right to complain.For whom I feel but pity sorrow and pain.And all he wants is a place in the bunkhouse, acceptance and a free life.For whom I really feel.4 Reprinted with permission. Jon Saphier and Mary Ann Haley, Summarizers. Acton, MA: Research forBetter Teaching, 1993.56101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 6: Using Images and Reflection to Draw Conclusions about HistoricEvents The Ted Landsmark Incident at City Hall PlazaBackgroundAfter more than a decade of court cases, protests, demonstrations and community action, Boston onceagain made national headlines after the assault on Ted Landsmark on April 5, 1976, on City Hall Plaza.During an anti-busing rally a young white man lunged at Landsmark with the staff of an American flag.This one incident, captured in a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph by Stanley Forman, showed that theschool desegregation battle reflected the broader issues of the civil rights struggle in Boston. This seriesof activities addresses that dramatic event in the Civil Rights Movement in Boston.Materials:! Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of the assault by Stanley Forman! Two articles from Boston Globe, interviewing the principals 25 years after the event, “Image ofan Era” and “Beyond the Flag’s Fury.” These articles are lengthy. Teachers may want tocondense or excerpt them.! Two student worksheetsTime needed: Two to three class periods, depending on class length.Student Activities:Students will gain knowledge of the event, begin to develop an informed opinion on civil rights and racerelations in Boston, and make parallel connections between this event and other civil rights events in theUnited States.1. Write a reaction response. With minimal introduction and without event description, ask studentsto prepare a short piece in response to the photograph, followed by student and instructor initiatedquestions and discussion of “What’s Going On?” in the picture. (Student Worksheet A)2. Assign one or both newspaper articles for homework.3. Discuss issues of interest to students.! Bring up the role of images and symbols in forming mass opinions.! Compare and contrast the backgrounds of Theodore Landsmark and Stephen Rakes.! Comment on the effect of the event on the identities of Landsmark and Rakes in theirlater lives.4. Assign the concluding essay, using the instructions on Student Worksheet B. Notice there are twooptions to allow for student choice.57101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 6: Student Worksheet A- What’s Going On?6.1(Photo/Stanley J. Forman)1. Carefully examine the photograph of the assault on Ted Landsmark.2. Describe in writing what’s going on in the photograph. You could include the following in yourdescription:! The facts of what you see. Think about the “WH” questions. Who? What? Where? When?! Your reaction to these facts! Your interpretation of “What’s going on.”If you are familiar with the image or the event, you should also include what you know in your writtenreaction.58101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 6: Student Worksheet B - Concluding Essay (Homework)Option One: Twenty-five Years After. In a clear, descriptive essay of 500 words or less, write aresponse to the Boston Globe articles, “Image of An Era” and “Beyond the Flag’s Fury”(included here).In your essay you are to address the following requirements:A. Identify by name the two principal characters in the event and summarize their opinions of the eventin 1976, now that twenty-five years have passed. Do you think the main characters have changed?Explain.B. End your essay by discussing your conclusion as to the significance of this event.Option Two: Twenty-five Years After. Now that you are familiar with the event, its surroundingcircumstances, and its aftermath, use that knowledge to describe the significance of this one event inBoston’s civil rights history in contrast to civil rights efforts elsewhere in the United States. You mayassume that your readers are familiar with the events. That is, do not spend time describing thecomparison event(s), simply name it. Your piece should be 500 words or less.Use standard grammar, mechanics, and form in writing your essay, as well as addressing the statedrequirements.59101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 6: Student Handout A“Image of an Era,” by Thomas Farragher, The Boston Globe, April, 1, 20016.2Bloodied and beaten, he seized on the symbolism of the attack, and even now, a quarter of a century later,it remains vivid and haunting.As his assailants moved away, Ted Landsmark was certain of two things: His nose was badlybroken. And his image—a black man assaulted with the staff of an American flag yards from the seat ofBoston city government during the bicentennial year—had been captured on camera.So as a white police officer approached, the shaken young man in the three-piece tan suit urgentlywaved him off. "It immediately occurred to me that the picture would look as though I was being escortedaway from a scene after I had done something wrong," Landsmark recalled. "So I asked him not to holdmy arm because it wasn't necessary."Landsmark wanted to be nobody's victim. He had little patience for martyrdom. But it was too late.As Landsmark unwittingly wandered into the epicenter of Boston's uproar over court-orderedbusing, his assailant had converted the Stars and Stripes into a dangerous weapon. As he stumbledbackward to avoid the sharp sting of the lance, a prize-winning photograph was taken that would capturethe defining moment of one of the most tumultuous periods in city history."The town was having a nervous breakdown," said former Boston Mayor Kevin H. White. "It wasone step too far. . . . It said something about the town which was true. You wouldn't think that we coulddo more damage to ourselves nationally than we had done with busing. But this was the capper."Twenty-five years after photographer Stanley Forman took his Pulitzer Prize-winning photo,Boston has moved beyond much of the hate and vitriol that marked the efforts to desegregate its schools.But the men in the photo are forever preserved in that iconographic moment, and still represent segmentsof the city's zeitgeist. One has forgiven, reached out, and become an entrenched Bostonian. The other—with lingering resentment—has largely forsaken Boston, retreating from a neighborhood he now scarcelyrecognizes to a new life 100 miles away.For Joseph Rakes, the South Boston teenager who wielded the flag that day with a sneer on his faceand anger boiling in his heart, the picture would become a near-lifetime millstone, a badge of dishonorthat would haunt him nearly into midlife.For Landsmark, the Yale-educated New Yorker drawn to Boston for its arts, culture, and seacoastsplendor, the black-and-white photo that ricocheted around the globe would serve as an unwelcomecalling card. In the days after the attack, he was a willing spokesman against the ugliness of racism, but henever wanted that moment to define his identity forever.Still, over the next 25 years, even as he collected awards, became a college dean, an assistantprofessor, and a college president, it has not been uncommon for Landsmark, after an introduction, towatch his new acquaintance's eyes brighten with recognition."Oh, yes. You're the guy with the flag."Today at 54, the president and chief executive officer of the Boston Architectural Center, NewEngland's largest architecture school, Landsmark said he only rarely and reluctantly discusses the uglyscuffle on City Hall Plaza on April 5, 1976—25 years ago this week."I had an identity before the photograph that I was clear about," he said. "And I've had an identitysince the photograph as an educator and policy maker in government and higher education. But therecontinue to be people who limit their sense of my identity to that moment."Early tie to busingLandsmark was born Theodore Augustus Burrell in Kansas City and grew up in New York, the60101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Storyonly child of a subway conductor and a public health nurse, who separated when he was 3. He was raisedby his mother, grandmother, and two aunts who placed a premium on music, the arts, and literature.Education was an early touchstone of his world.So when the Supreme Court issued its landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954,ruling that separate-but-equal classrooms were unconstitutional, Landsmark was one of four childrenfrom his Harlem public school selected for a bold new experiment in New York City. Busing, whoseeffects would not explode across Boston for another 20 years, was being born.And Landsmark was placidly on board, headed to a predominantly white school where his newschoolmates were mostly Jewish, Irish, and unintimidating."It forced me to acquire a much broader sense of tolerance of different people than I would havehad in Harlem," Landsmark said. The teachers were terrific. The schoolchildren accepted him as theirnew friend.But riding the bus each day, Landsmark felt a disconnectedness that years later Bostonians, too,would learn to lament."Certain ties that are social and cultural either don't develop or become severed with both thecommunity you are bused from and the community that you are bused to because you're never in eithercommunity long enough to be able to develop a clear sense of friendship," Landsmark said.Still, he made do. As a result of childhood polio, one of Landsmark's legs is shorter than the other.That, he said, made him unsuitable "for street crime, gangs, and other diversions." As a teenager at theall-boys Stuyvesant High, he captained the cheerleading squad, the organizing arm of student governmentthat led rallies, strikes, and demonstrations.He cheered for JFK, railed against a growing stockpile of nuclear weapons, and, when the head ofthe American Nazi Party made an appearance five blocks from school, helped lead a walkout with thetacit approval of school administrators.After a year at St. Paul's prep school in Concord, N.H., where he played hockey, Landsmarkenrolled at Yale, where in 1964 he was among 16 black freshmen in a class of 1,050. He grew friendlywith football hero Calvin Hill, shared a beer with undergraduate George W. Bush, became political editorat the Yale Daily News, and, from afar, supported his political hero, John V. Lindsay, New York'smaverick mayor.He earned his law degree at Yale and in 1973 moved to Boston, where he took on a new job and anew identity. He changed his name from Burrell to Landsmark, his mother's maiden name."I thought it was time to honor the person who had done all the work," he said.Married to a white woman he later would divorce, Landsmark made a common geographicalmistake among city newcomers when he shopped for his first home in Boston's South End."We went through the classifieds and at one point we mistakenly looked at a very interesting ad fora house in South Boston," he recalled. "And when we came to meet with the South End realtors whom wewere working with, they pointed out to us that as a couple, particularly as an interracial couple, we wouldbe significantly more welcome in the South End than in South Boston."After paying less than $40,000 for a brownstone on Massachusetts Avenue, the Landsmarks werehome.Comfortable in BostonIf Boston in the early 1970s was a city on the verge of racial tumult, Landsmark did notimmediately detect it.When friends warned him that blacks could be made to feel uncomfortable at places like FenwayPark or Boston Garden, Landsmark shrugged. He bought season tickets to the Celtics and comfortablycheered for a team then led by John Havlicek."I always thought Boston was a cool city," he said.For a man without children, the city's roiling busing debate was—if not quite an abstraction—61101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Storyhardly anything that affected Landsmark where he lived."I think we felt a little embarrassed to read press accounts of what the school committee was doingand saying. And it was obvious that their policies were way out of line with what it was children needed,and were fundamentally racist," he said.At 29, Landsmark was then the executive director of a minority contractors' association in Boston,working to ensure that minorities received more of the city's construction work. On April 5, 1976, he hadhis mind on business as he hurried for Government Center, running late for a 10 a.m. meeting at CityHall."I looked around the corner and I saw this black man coming up from the old State House," saidForman, who had been dispatched by editors at the Boston Herald American (a precursor to the currentBoston Herald) to cover another in a series of anti-busing protests, this one at City Hall planned by highschool students. "He had just taken a right to come in that alleyway and it went off in my head: ‘They'regoing to get him,’ " said Forman. "I didn't know they were going to get him with a flag. I don't evenremember seeing the flag. It was just: Bang! They're going to get him."As the student protesters approached Landsmark, Forman, detecting a malfunction with one of hiscamera's motor drives, started shooting manually, frame by frame. And then his lens focused on JoeRakes and Ted Landsmark."A couple guys were yelling, ‘Get the nigger!’ " said Landsmark. "My nose got broken because oneof the guys hit me in the nose. And that, in part, is what knocked my glasses off. But I could see the flagcoming. It was a big flag. But the flag-bearer was swinging it. The appearance in the photograph is that hewas trying to impale me on it. In fact, he swung it at me, and I was able to lean back just enough that itdidn't actually hit me. Thank God."But Rakes's near-miss did nothing to diminish the emotional power of the photograph. As hewitnessed the attack from his office overlooking the plaza, then-mayor White said he realized his city hadabsorbed a stunning symbolic stain that would take years to fade."It was like an explosion," White said. "I don't know whether to call it a nightmare or an absurdity.At that moment, I was conscious of two things. That image was going to be recreated in newspapersacross the nation. And, as bad as it was that it was occurring, I knew it would leave an imprint on this citythat would never really go away."Dressing the woundLandsmark was taken by ambulance to Massachusetts General Hospital, where his broken nose wasreset by a doctor. And then, acknowledging a crowding media throng assembling outside, the doctordiscussed with Boston's latest mugging victim how best to dress the wound."As luck would have it, there was a black doctor there, and he said that under normal circumstancesI could have either a small bandage that would cover the break, or I could have something moresignificant," said Landsmark.Landsmark described the circumstances of his attack to the physician."We got into a dialogue about what it was that we thought would be most appropriate for thesereporters to see as I came out of the operating room," he said. "And a small bandage would not haveimparted the same kind of drama that had, in fact, happened to me. . . . So I took a larger bandage."Landsmark almost immediately publicly forgave his young attackers, calling them pawns of angry,misguided adults. And, while he resisted those "who wanted to place words of anger on my lips," he saidhe knew his assault had to convey a powerful and meaningful message."When he walked into court he was so bandaged that I was surprised he could walk," recalledretired Judge Francis G. Poitrast, who found two juveniles charged along with Rakes guilty of assault andbattery on Landsmark. "We rarely see people in court with facial bandages. I think he felt that this hadhappened to him and he wasn't going to let it go. And I don't blame him for that."Landsmark, whose life is now centered around architecture and the arts, said he has long since62101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Storymade peace with his fateful association with a portrait of a Boston haunted by race and violence."I knew who I was and what role I had to play," he said. "And that role transcended any personalpain that I might have felt at that moment from a broken nose. I knew that at that moment I had to speakfor many other people, who perhaps could have spoken more articulately about racism in Boston. But Iwas the one who had the opportunity and the responsibility. And I had to use that responsibility wisely."So he promoted the need for more minority job opportunities on public and private payrolls andeventually returned to City Hall to direct health outreach programs and efforts to curb youth violence.Seven years ago, Landsmark was gratified to receive a visit in his City Hall office from one of theteenagers who participated in the attack. Bobby Powers came bearing an apology and a peace offering ofsorts, a picture of him with his young son. Landsmark, then director of the city's safe neighborhoodsprogram, placed the photograph on his desk.But Joseph Rakes, the man who carried the American flag from his home in South Boston that day,has not seen Landsmark since the summer of 1976, when he pleaded guilty to assault and battery with adeadly weapon, to wit, the symbol of the nation.Rakes, now a husband and father, raising a family far from Boston with earnings from his job as aBig Dig laborer, offers no apologies for what he did during a turbulent time when, he said, busing turnedhis insular world upside down."For the kids that were my age, it just always seemed so one-sided," Rakes said. "I like to think Iwas a real quiet kid up until the ninth grade. Well, in the 10th grade when all this insanity started, believeme, I came out of my shell."I was loud. I was rude. And violence was part of it. But that was more survival than anything.”63101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryLesson 6: Student Handout B: “Beyond the Flag’s Fury,” by Thomas Farragher, The BostonGlobe, April 2, 20016.3The flag he once waved as a weapon sits benignly now in Joseph Rakes's cabinet, a folded colorfulrelic, 100 miles and 25 years away from a Boston that, like the flag-keeper himself, no longer smolderswith rage.Forever preserved in a fateful photograph that became the most enduring image of Boston'stectonic struggle to desegregate its schools, Rakes is focused on a future far from the South Bostonneighborhood he finds increasingly unfamiliar.But, like the man he assaulted on City Hall Plaza 25 years ago this week when he used the staff ofthe Stars and Stripes as a lance, Rakes cannot quiet the whispers of his past. He has adopted a keen sensefor secretive glances from new co-workers and acquaintances, who still recognize him as the angry youngman from Southie."I still hear the comments. People say, `That's the guy with the flag,' " said Rakes, now a laborer onBoston's Big Dig, during a recent interview. "It's no big deal. It rolls off my back. It's ancient historywhen you think about it. That's more than half my life ago."Still, that half of a lifetime was profoundly shadowed by his decision to convert the nationalbanner's staff into a menacing spear. It precluded a military career, blocked avenues to education, and,eventually, helped to drive him from a town he once fervently loved."For many of us the events of those years had a tremendous impact and certainly for Joe Rakes ithas had a lifelong impact," said City Councilor Peggy Davis-Mullen, one of Rakes's former classmates."It was a terrifying time. It was surreal. You had helicopters overhead. You had police in riot gearin the street. As a young person, there was a feeling of being caught up in a current and a frenzy that youcouldn't control and you didn't understand. I can remember feeling bad for Ted Landsmark [the black manwho was attacked] and feeling bad for Joe Rakes."But today, Joe Rakes wants nobody's pity. And he offers no apologies.Twenty-five years ago, a federal judge took his school from him, he said, fracturing friendships andfutures, and igniting a fury within him that he scarcely knew he was capable of commanding.People will either understand, he said with a shrug, or they won't."I was too angry with everybody," Rakes said over lunch at a South Boston pizza shop. "I didn'tlike anybody. I didn't care for anybody. I took care of my family. I watched out for my brothers andsisters and my relatives and my friends. We all watched out for each other. “And nobody watched out forus."After Rakes's indelible portrait of rage emerged from a frame of film in photographer StanleyForman's camera, Rakes became an instant national symbol for Boston's racial strife."He went into a shell after that," said Stephen Rakes, a brother. "He thought everybody was lookingat him. He didn't want to talk about it. It was a bad time in his life. Everybody knew him as the `flag kid.'And that can wear on you year after year. He hated it."Another brother, Robert Rakes, first saw the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of his younger brotherwhile in solitary confinement in prison for bank robbery. A guard delivered the paper with his supperthrough a slat in his cell door."I think after that happened, half of all his options closed," Robert Rakes said. "I think Joe just kindof came up at the wrong time. If the busing thing wasn't there, Joe would have been all right. You knowwhat I mean?"But then his picture got made. He won the booby prize with that picture."64101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Story`We did OK'Joseph H. Rakes was the fifth of seven children in a blue-collar family, who lived in the tenementsof South Boston and worshiped at St. Augustine's Church. They made do with their father's weeklypaycheck from Gillette, where he worked as a maintenance man for 35 years."My mother was a strong woman. She made it happen back then," said Robert, the second oldest ofthe Rakes children. "She had seven of us and she made it work. Secondhand clothes and day-old food, butwe didn't lose weight and we didn't look bad. We did OK."Family, friends, and counselors recall the young Joseph Rakes as an easygoing kid who kept tohimself, stayed mostly out of trouble at school, and preferred the after-school programs of the Boys andGirls Club in South Boston to the rigors of homework."They were the ones that we tried to keep off the streets," said Ron Young, who was the BoysClub's program director in the early 1970s. "Joe was a good athlete and basically a good kid. I just thinkthe busing thing was a very emotional and very difficult thing for kids to deal with during those difficulttimes."By his own calculations, Rakes missed no more than 15 days of school through the ninth grade. Hesaid his parents made it clear that his job as a teenager was to be in school. And that's where he went onthe day Boston began its volcanic effort to ensure equal education citywide."You put on the new pants, the new shirt that your mom and dad went out and bought for you,"Rakes said. "You walk up to a police line and they say, `We think it's better that you go home.' Tenthgrade. The first day of busing."The South Boston neighborhood he had lived in with his friends since early boyhood was beingtransformed, he said, into increasingly foreign and hostile terrain."We knew a lot of police and they knew us, and they were real good to us," said Rakes. "But thenthey brought in a whole bunch of different police who didn't care for us at all."Rakes said he got his first true taste of a police baton's sting after he and four or five friends werewalking home one afternoon, violating a busing-era edict against groups of three or more congregating. "`Who cares if you just come up from the Boys Club and you just got out of swim team practice?' It wasjust a piss-on-you attitude," he said.Rakes's father was a strong supporter of South Boston political leaders who spoke out againstforced busing and what they saw as its corrosive effects on their tight-knit community."My parents kind of raised us to be pit bulls instead of cats," Robert Rakes said. "My father wasfrom the old school. And he was outspoken against busing. And Joe just kind of fell into that web. Peoplein Southie sent their kids out there and told them: `Go get 'em.' "So at midmorning on April 5, 1976, when students from South Boston and Charlestown convergedon City Hall Plaza to protest court-ordered busing, Joe Rakes decided he'd help lead the charge. He took aflag from his family's home."You always had a flag in a crowd so people could follow it," said Rakes. "Every family had onein South Boston. You always had an Irish flag and an American flag. It was a fact."Àll a blur'The morning began calmly. The students, all of whom were white, marched outside City Hall andwere invited upstairs to the City Council chambers by Louise Day Hicks, an antibusing leader and thenthe council president. The students recited the Pledge of Allegiance, and left a long list of grievances.When they walked outside, the students clashed with a racially mixed group of demonstrators."They decided to step things up a bit and they were throwing fruit," Rakes said. "Well, a grape anda rock look a lot alike. A couple girls got hit and went down, and everybody got worked up. And fromthen on things just got out of hand."And as they did, Theodore Landsmark, executive director of a minority contractors' association,was hurrying to a meeting at City Hall. Joseph Rakes leveled his flag and attacked.65101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Story"It was all a blur," Rakes said. "There was no thinking whatsoever. It was more rage than anything.I didn't know until it was over what had happened. I remember turning and running. I mean, when youthink about it, that Stanley Forman had a quick finger. Good for him."Forman, who was working for the Boston Herald American, a precursor to the current Herald,knew he had a compelling picture, but did not realize how dramatic the image was until he stood in hisdarkroom hours later and watched it take form in a tray of developer fluid."It was a perfect picture and the editors started coming in and they were scared of it," said Forman,now a videographer at WCVB-TV, Channel 5. "And I was scared of it, too. I mean this was real racism.This was real violence. They didn't know exactly what to do. How big do you play it?"News of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes's death dominated front pages nationwide the nextday, but Rakes's assault on Landsmark was front-page news in Boston. Rakes saw the photo for the firsttime while riding a Red Line train en route to his after-school job cleaning buildings downtown."I look across from me and someone's reading the paper and I say to myself, `That looks prettyfamiliar. Who's that lunatic?' "Rakes called his parents to alert them of the bad news on their doorstep. He hid for a week beforesurrendering to authorities. That summer, he pleaded guilty to assault and battery with a deadly weapon,and received a two-year suspended prison sentence and two years of probation.After graduating in 1977 from Heights Academy, the busing-inspired alternative secondary schoolin South Boston, Rakes bounced around at seasonal jobs and stints at local fast-food joints.He considered a career in the military, asking his oldest brother, John, a Vietnam veteran, to makeinquiries for him among recruiters. "Because [the assault] is considered a criminal record, the way it cameback to me from the top is that I'd have a real hard time if I'd joined the service," said Rakes. "So I neverbothered."Eventually, he landed a job at Gillette, his father's longtime employer. Before his first shift wasover, he said, he was involved in a fistfight in the restroom."My supervisor at the time was a black female and she said, `You're the kid from City Hall Plaza?'and I said, `Yeah,' and she said, `We'll just see about that.' And I go to the bathroom and all of a suddenI'm not alone. I had to fight my way out of the bathroom."In early 1983, Rakes's name was back in the headlines. Thomas Dooley, a 20-year-old SouthBoston man, was dating Rakes's sister. Police reports state that Joseph Rakes was angry that Dooley hadstruck her. Rakes allegedly hit Dooley in the head with a metal pipe and kicked him outside a SouthBoston barroom, according to court records. Police said Dooley identified Rakes as his attacker beforelosing consciousness. He died about a week later.Rakes fled prosecution, disappearing for more than five years. Police chased leads that he was inNew Hampshire, or Florida, or, perhaps, the Bahamas. In June 1988, he turned himself in and wasarraigned on a first-degree murder charge. But by then, the case had grown cold."Since such a lengthy period of time has elapsed, various evidentiary materials and witnesses havebecome unavailable," Daniel C. Mullane, then an assistant Suffolk County district attorney, wrote in courtpapers. "This has severely limited the Commonwealth's ability to collect enough probative evidence tomeet the standard of probable cause necessary to indict."The murder case was never prosecuted. "I don't even want to talk about that, to tell you the truth,"Rakes said.`Just South Boston now'Rakes, his head now completely bald—mostly nature's work with some assistance from a razor—sits in a booth during his lunch break, a reluctant interviewee.He lives in a seaside town north of Boston now, rising early and leaving his tidy home each day at3:30 a.m. for the commute south. He drops the daily paper off at his mother's home in South Boston, andthen heads to work on the fringes of a neigborhood he used to call home.66101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Story"I go about my business and I get out of town," he said. "That's all. South Boston is South Boston.People's lives don't revolve around their families anymore. People are selling their houses, moving outand being able to pay cash for a house in the suburbs."I tell everybody, I grew up in Southie, but when I moved out, it was South Boston," he said."When I lived in South Boston, you kill and die for your family. We lived in Southie then. It's just SouthBoston now."Rakes has not spoken with Landsmark since the 1976 assault. Someone wrote a letter of apology ata judge's insistence. "It was a real nice letter," he said. "I signed it. That's all I did."Rakes's brother Stephen, who operated a South Boston liquor store before mobster James "Whitey"Bulger allegedly extorted it from him, said he introduced himself to Landsmark shortly after Landsmarkwas named to the MBTA's board of directors in 1977."[Landsmark] was a real gentleman," said Stephen Rakes, a track inspector for the T. "He said, Ìf Ican do anything for Joe, have him come and see me.' I said to Joe, `Why don't you just go in and be alittle humble and apologize. . . ?' "But if Landsmark wants to forgive and forget, Joe Rakes is working —sometimes without success—at simply forgetting.He is married now to his "dream girl," the former Karen Weeks, also of South Boston. When one oftheir children wanted to use the attack as the focus of a high school project several years ago, Rakesagreed to give him his version of Boston's busing history."First of all, they were saying that certain people weren't getting as good an education as people inSouth Boston, so they figured they'd switch people around. And my younger one said, Ìsn't it better justto move around the good teachers?' "When Rakes's son wrote his report about the assault, he took no sides. He said his father waspartially wrong. He depicted Landsmark as a victim. "It was five or six pages. I thought it was prettygood. But he received a failing grade," he said.Rakes smiles slightly at the irony of that teacher's judgment of a report gleaned from a principalparticipant in the downtown attack. It is a thin smile of resignation from a middle-aged man who isthrough with explanations, apologies, or regrets."You can't even say that you regret it because it's such a minute part of my life," he said. "Regret it?A lot of people can regret things, but what good is that going to do? You can't change it. It's somethingthat happened. That's all."I'm over it."67101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryPART IIUSING ORAL HISTORY TO LEARN ABOUT THE PASTLesson 1: Learning About Life StoriesIntroductionThe study of life stories can be used to enhance curricula in social studies, language, and visualarts. Oral history projects foster cross-cultural communication, improve listening skills, and encouragelearning about the past. Stories are collected for the purpose of writing biographies of individuals and forstudying a particular historical event or movement. They are also collected as literature—to beappreciated for the beauty and the texture of the stories themselves.Everyone has a story to tell. The shaping of life experiences into stories is a universal andessential human behavior. By telling and listening to stories, we build community. Engaging in an oralhistory project involves listening to people’s voices, recording and/or documenting their stories, andorganizing and presenting the material to a wider audience. While conducting and participating in an oralhistory project, students will discover information not found in any text; they may question stereotypesand build bridges of understanding between themselves and others.Here you will find ideas and instructions for organizing an oral history project to discover anddocument a part of the history of the Civil Right Movement in the United States: Boston in the 1960s.The interviews could be with people active in the Movement but not living in Boston during the1960s and 70s.Information and Materials for Teachers and Students! A list of ideas and instructions for organizing an oral history project! Biography and interview with Melnea Cass (Student Handouts A and B)! Student Worksheet A: Reading guide list of questions for the biographies and interviews! A list of interviewing tips for students (Student Handout C)! A list of suggested interview questions (Student Handout D)! A release form for the interviewee to sign! Student Worksheet B: Instruction sheet for the writing assignment to follow students’ interviewsStudent ActivitiesThis lesson includes three activities. You may decide to assign some of the work for homework.1. Before the Interview! Read the biographical information and interview with Melnea Cass that are included in thispacket. These readings give a sense of how the national Civil Rights Movement, focusing on theSouth, was connected to the movement in Boston.! Using Student Worksheet A, students can write a series of responses to the questions, or write anarrative summary of the interview.! The questions and the summaries can then be used as a springboard for a class discussion. It willbe important to discuss the readings as a whole class, both for content and for interviewing tips.2. The Interview Itself! Help students decide whom to interview. Some will know people who were active in the CivilRights Movement, either in Boston or other parts of the United States. Some might know peoplewho were students or teachers during the desegregation era in Boston. Others will questionpeople who had opinions about civil rights issues, but were not activists. Students should think68101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Storyabout people they know in their families, schools, churches or communities who may have had arole in the Movement.! Prepare the questions. Look at the sample questions included in this section of the packet ofmaterials. You may use these questions as they are or have students adapt them. You may decideyou want your students to write their own questions.! Students conduct the interviews. Discuss interview techniques before the students begin theprocess. You will find a sheet of interview tips included in this packet. Go over it before theybegin. Finally, consider conducting a model interview in class. Perhaps you could interview acolleague, or students could practice interviewing each other about some current issue. Early inthe process, mention that a photograph is an important element of the final product. Discuss thepossibility of videotaping some of the interviews that students do. Be sure to ask the intervieweeto sign the release form (included here).3. After the Interview! Give the writing assignment, using Student Worksheet B included in this packet to frame thenarrative’s requirements. (Suggest that the story should include a photograph of the interviewee,as well as at least two direct quotations.)! Prepare a group visual presentation by creating a poster display board. Think about the mosteffective way to highlight and feature your students’ work. Video could also be a part of a grouppresentation.! Choose ways to share the student projects: a school assembly, PTA meetings, a web site, etc.69101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryPart II: Lesson 1 Student Handout AII.1.1: Biography of Melnea Agnes Jones CassMelnea Cass is among the best-known and beloved Boston Civil Rights Movement activists. Born inRichmond Virginia in 1896, she moved to Massachusetts with her parents in 1901 when she was 5 yearsold. As a teenager, she was sent back to Virginia for an education in what was then called “householdmanagement,” an initiative organized by black women to make domestic service into a profession.Because of Jim Crow laws, most other careers were not open to African American women.After returning to Boston in 1914 at age 18, Melnea Jones worked as a domestic for the next threedecades. She was married and raised a family during this time. Her life story illuminates the similaritiesbetween Southern and Northern Jim Crow. We also learnhow activists were connected across time and in manylocations.Melnea Jones married Marshall Cass in 1917 when shewas 21. His mother, Ruth Cass Brown, was very activein black community organizations and encouraged hernew daughter-in-law, Melnea, to be active as well. Inracially segregated Boston, Melnea Cass was presidentof the Women’s Service Club that assisted young blackwomen to get training and employment. She waspresident of the Boston branch of the NAACP in 1962-64 and helped to organize the sit-ins at the BostonSchool Committee. She was also a charter member ofABCD and a co-director of Freedom House.Mrs. Cass was 81 years old in 1977 when she wasinterviewed about her life and work. The entire interviewis available in the Black Women’s History Archives atthe Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe in Cambridge. Theseexcerpts are printed here with permission from thelibrary.***70101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryPart II: Lesson 1 Student Handout BInterview with Melnea Agnes Jones CassInterviewer: …I’d like to know, who were the influential individuals in your life?MC: My mother-in-law was one, of course. She was a great influence because she was a great lady…Shewas a community person, a civic leader, a worker in the NAACP, in church work and all sorts ofcommunity things. (She was) a church leader of the Saint Mark’s Congregational Church…and mychildren went there to Sunday school and it became my church because of her. …She persuaded me to goout and vote, soon after women got the right to vote. They were scared to death and, of course, a lot ofpoor white women were scared to death too…They felt that if they voted it might affect their husbands’jobs because that’s what (the husbands) were telling them.Interviewer: What clubs did Mrs. Brown belong to?MC: Well, she belonged to the one that I’m now president of, the Women’s Service Club of Bostonwhich is about 60 years old...and she was a leader in the NAACP and the (National) Equal rights Leaguewith Trotter...and other organizations (that) were out there struggling for rights of colored people duringthat era.Interviewer: Tell me about the Trotter group.MC: Well…the Equal Rights League …was founded by William Monroe Trotter who you know, was agreat leader here in Boston. (He was) editor of The Guardian, and also a graduate of Harvard, summa cumlaude. And when he graduated, he couldn’t even get a job to do what he wanted…because he was acolored man. So he immediately went into working for himself and to protest that (treatment). Hefounded The Guardian paper…so he could speak through it to the people on their rights.Interviewer: Did you read that newspaper?MC: Oh yes. I read it all the time. We had it every week in our house because my mother-in-law was oneof the supporters of that paper, (she) helped … to get it printed—financially, they raised money so hecould print it. That was a paper similar to The Banner today. It was the only paper black people had inthis community… (Trotter) was a man who believed in equality for everybody. So that was his workinglife. He opened doors to many things—helped to get jobs and he helped to make black people understandwhat their rights were, and to go forth to the legislature and try to get them. He preceded the NAACP herein Boston, you know. And he led marches and protests down in Tremont Temple …when they lynchedNegroes down south. We’d have a big mass meeting right in Tremont Temple, let everybody know about(the lynchings) and petition the (U.S.) government about it.Interviewer: Was this before World War I?MC: Oh, this was after World War I…The Trotter meetings were held in churches all around here …Thewhole community would go to hear and to get plans to see what we could do to help the blacks in theSouth who were getting lynched and whose houses were getting burned down…There were protestmeetings to let the government know we didn’t like what was going on with the black people in theSouth. And some black people here, for that matter. Of course, they didn’t get lynched here, but they were71101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Storypersecuted falsely and accused of different things because they were black, and couldn’t get a job becausethey were black. And (Trotter) held meetings for lack of work and not enough employment…Interviewer: We’ve talked a little bit about Trotter. What did you hear about Booker T. Washington …?MC: Well, of course, … he was one of the greatest leaders that black people have had in his field, youknow, of working…Interviewer: Did you hear anything specific while you were growing up?MC: Well…that he …had a school in Tuskegee Alabama—Tuskegee Institute—all of us knew about thatand knew he was a great leader, a great man of our race. He did come to Boston several times to tell abouthis work. He believed in training people for trades and technical work…but Trotter was contrary to it; hedidn’t like it. He believed that (people) should have an education as professionals such as doctors,lawyers, teachers…and (Booker T. Washington) said that that was fine, but if they had a trade they knewgood and well, they could get right out and get a job and always work…So Trotter and Washingtondisagreed…Interviewer: At that point had you heard of WEB DuBois?MC: Well, he was a great man. He was a philosopher and a teacher and an educator… He and Booker T.Washington didn’t agree either …on this approach about what black people should be trained to do.Because DuBois was a great teacher and a great educator and he believed that you should get aneducation to do higher skills…Interviewer: How about Marcus Garvey?MC: Oh I didn’t know Marcus Garvey at all. I just heard about him. My mother, my aunt, they used to goto meetings for Marcus Garvey;… that’s how far back it is. His movement was here in Boston, too, youknow. He had quite a movement here amongst the people, getting ready to go back to Africa. It was calledthe Back To Africa movement, led by Garvey. …He gathered a lot of support here among …particularlythe West Indian people because he was a West Indian.***These fights (for civil rights) went on all the time...There was no special year… I took part in the formingof the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters under A. Philip Randolph. He came to Boston …and he triedto get the Pullman porters (organized)….he started out in the churches, having meetings to tell thePullman porters and (others) to come and he’d try to get them organized (so they could) go to the officialsand tell them how poorly they got paid…these redcaps who were carrying bags…and getting ten centsand a quarter..so he (Randolph) tried to organize (them), get them into a union. It was very hard at firstbut he kept at it until finally, you see, he got them organized…And he was the one that during the war,went to the President and told him that if he didn’t issue some kind of executive order to hire black peoplein the war plants, he was going to have a march on Washington for jobs. And so Roosevelt hurried upthen and issued an executive order which opened up the war plants to black people to get in there andwork and make some war money.Interviewer: How were you aware of all this?MC: No trouble… to get aware of things. The newspaper, and it’s announced in every black church in thecity of Boston—everybody knows it’s going to be.72101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryInterviewer: But the march on Washington during the 1940’s?MC: They didn’t have that march. They didn’t have to because he ( President Roosevelt) issued theexecutive order and everybody went to work.***Interviewer: How about your affiliation with the NAACP?MC: …My mother-in-law took me into the NAACP and I worked with anything I could do. Gettingmembers, attending the meetings, serving on various committees—all kinds—housing…education…Iworked on almost every committee except the minister’s committee —the religious committee. That wasjust for men. But with the NAACP, I guess there’s nothing ...I haven’t really done that’s action orientedand, of course, I became the second woman president in the history of (the Boston NAACP).Interviewer: Your biography...says that you were president from 1962 to 1964. Can you tell me about thatperiod?MC: We were very active…Of course, with the civil rights movement, there was action all the time...Because the NAACP…led in that whole civil rights movement…all of our branches all over the countrywere alert to everything that was going on in their own communities. And on a national level, when weneeded united strength to get together for petitions or hearings in the state house—or to go toWashington—we always had people who could represent us, lawyers who understood what it was allabout…One of the things we participated in was the registration of voting in the South…We sent moneyto the (NAACP) branches to help them in Mississippi, in Alabama …Interviewer: Was it during your presidency of the (Boston) NAACP that the first demonstrationshappened with the School Committee?MC: We had some, yes—we had quite a few sit-ins…We’d get (people) together, those who were willingto do it, …We’d go down there to the Boston School Committee and go right in and talk with them. Andthey never paid any attention…so then when they’d get through with their meeting, we’d stay there.(Sometimes) we’d march up and down…Oh yes, and carry a banner. One sit-in that I was in was …verycrucial. I thought I wouldn’t sit in that day because I had been to others and it was tiresome, but they (theorganizers) said that the police wee going to arrest them because they trespassed. So...one of the youngmen called me up and asked me would I come and sit in there because he said if I did, they don’t think(the police) would arrest them...He said, “I think if you came down here, they wouldn’t arrest us becausethey wouldn’t dare to do it.” So I said, “Well, I’ll come.” So when I came down, the policeman said,“What do you want?” They knew me too. I said, “I’m going in to the sit-in, to the demonstration.” …Sohe opened the door and let me in. I went and I sat with (the demonstrators) a long time, so the policeofficer said, “Well the time is nearly up, you have to leave.” … Finally, they must have called up thestation house… and told them I was there. So the captain said, “Well, then you can’t arrest anybody…IfMrs. Cass is there, don’t start any arrests.” That was how they felt and I saved the day by beingthere….That night, the streets were full of people, they were all out there demonstrating.Interviewer: …Was that an exciting time, or exhausting? Or was it sad?MC: Well, it was…sad to think that you had to do all that just to getr your point over. It just really madeyou feel very depressed to think you have to keep on doing that. You can’t make a headway at all, …youknow, you’d like to just feel like you were progressing, but we weren’t…73101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryInterviewer: But was it also exciting or no?MC: We didn’t take it as any kind of excitement…we took it as a very serious thing, and a calamityhappening to us as black people—trying to get something done and couldn’t impress anybody.Interviewer: How about comparing…the demonstrations and meetings during the School Committeeevents with the meetings that A. Philip Randolph organized.MC: They were just as enthusiastic...the people just as serious about it. That was a vital issue because it’sbread and butter and jobs for men. The homemakers, they wanted to make a living (too). But the motivesare all the same; it’s to open the door of employment and equal opportunity for black people whether it’sa school, a job or what it is. That’s all it is, just asking for fair treatment. And that’s what black peoplehave had to do ever since they were freed in this country. They’ve been trying to work to get their equalrights with everybody else. It’s very frustrating—every time you turn around, you got to have ademonstration, you got to have a law, you got to have something…that tells you that you’re free and thatyou’re equal to everybody else, but when you go to test it out, it’s not true…You wonder what is wrong.Why have you got to do all these things? Just that simple.74101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryPart II: Lesson 1 - Student Worksheet AReading/Notetaking/Discussion Guide: Melnea CassDirections: Use these ideas and questions to guide your reading, note taking and/or discussion of thepresentation.! Describe the background of Cass. Consider factors like age, family, location, education,important dates, etc.! Describe the actions she took during the Civil Rights Movement.! What risks to herself and others did she take by participating in the Civil Rights Movement?! What was she able to change as a result of their activism?! Brainstorm 5-10 words you would use to describe Cass.! Write or highlight at least two quotations from the interview.! Evaluate her actions: Did she accomplish her goals? Do you agree with her tactics? Herphilosophy?! What questions would you ask her if you could talk with her today?75101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights StoryPart II: Lesson 1, Student Handout C - Interviewing Tips for StudentsBe preparedBefore your interview, look over your materials. Do you have…• your notes or questions?• a pad and pens or pencils?• If using a tape recorder, do you have enough tape?• An extension cord, adaptor plug, and a microphone if needed?• Test your equipment (record and play back some of your “small talk” with the interviewee beforethe interview really begins.Be relaxed• Your interview may take place in the home of the interviewee or in some other place away fromschool. If so, arrange to meet with your interviewee alone, without his or her spouse or friendspresent. The interviewee may be more relaxed and open when alone.• Get comfortable in your chair or desk before beginning, with the tape recorder within easy reachof both you and the interviewee.• Spend a little time before starting the actual interview just talking with your interviewee, but becareful not to let this “small talk” drag onBe patient• When the interview begins, you may be eager to ask all of your written or prepared questionsright away, but go slowly. Start with some of your easier questions and listen carefully to theresponses.• Ask one question at a time and keep your question as short as you can.• Your interviewee will have to stop and think occasionally. Instead of asking a new question assoon as the interviewee stops talking, wait to see if he or she has more to say.Be helpful• Help to make the interview a good one by asking interesting questions. Instead of questions thatcan be answered “yes” or “no”, ask questions using words such as who, what, where, when,what kind of, why, and how.• Be as specific as you can.• Listen carefully.Be courteous• Maintaining eye contact with the interviewee and gently nodding your head every now and thenare good ways to show you are paying attention, which encourages the interviewee.• Try not to interrupt a good story. Use your notepad to jot down your comments, so you can bringthem up later.• Remember to say “Thank you!”76101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights MovementPart II: Lesson 1, Student Handout D - Suggested Interview QuestionsTo begin the interview:• Could you tell me a little about your background? Where did you grow up?• Where were you living during the era of the Civil Rights Movement?• How old were you at that time?To elicit stories:• How did you first become aware of the Civil Rights Movement?• Are there certain experiences that stand out in your mind? What are they?• What changes did you experience as a person during this period of time? Were you part of theMovement or a sympathizer?• If you were part of the Movement, how did your work affect your relationships with familyand friends?• Can you describe someone who inspired you or who became a role model for you?• Do you remember the day that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated? What were youdoing that day? How did you hear the news? What were your reactions?Asking for more detail:• Were there times during the period of the Civil Rights Movement when you were required tobe courageous? Can you describe these times? What inspired you to keep going?• What was it like for people of color and white people to work together during this period?Can you think of times when people got along well? Were there times when there weretensions?Boston stories:If your interviewee was in Boston in the 1960s and 70s ask:• How do you think that Boston differed from other parts of the country during this period?77101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights MovementLegal Release FormDate________________I understand that I am being interviewed as part of an oral history project about the Civil RightsMovement of the 1960s and 70s.I agree to participate in this project and I understand that my interview will used in a student paper,and may be shared with teachers, students and parents.Signature: ________________________________Name: (please print)_________________________Address: ______________________________________________________________________Phone: ___________________e-mail: ___________________________________________________________ (Signature of the Interviewer)Thank you very much for your participation.78101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights MovementPart II: Lesson 1, Student Worksheet BA Narrative Summary of the InterviewDirections: In a clear, direct, skillfully written narrative summary of approximately 500 words,write up the results of your interview. This is your chance to tell your interviewee’s story, as wellas your reaction to it. Be sure to include the following elements:! Identify the interviewee: Tell the person’s name, age, location, occupation, familybackground and education at the time of the Civil Rights Movement. In other words, put theperson in a context.! Summarize the person’s story: Tell what the person did, thought and felt during that era.Include specific anecdotes. Personalize the summary by including at least two directquotations. This is the story; it should communicate the power and passion of theinterviewee.! Give your opinion: Comment on the person’s actions and attitudes. Was he/she aneffective agent of change? What did you learn about the Civil Rights Movement as a result ofdoing the interview? Does your person compare to any of the historic figures you learn aboutin this project? How? Comment on interviewing as a technique for learning history. This isyour chance to say what you think.! Create a visual presentation: As a group, assemble the photographs and the narratives ona visual display board.79101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights MovementPart II: Lesson 2 Sharing the Oral History Experiences of Students (DVD)BackgroundAfter completing an Oral History Project and participating in the 2006 Symposium, a group of Bostonarea high school students came together some months later to describe their findings, theirconclusions and their feelings about the process of interviewing activists from the 1960s and 70’s.Their teachers also shared their own goals and discussed the process of preparing students for theinterviews.These discussions were filmed and Primary Source has created a DVD of these panel discussions forteachers to use, either as part of this curriculum, or as a stand-alone source of ideas for organizing anoral history project with students.Materials:A three-part DVD, featuring students and teachers discussing their experiences with the oral historyproject. Part One, “Uncovering the Story,” highlights the group describing their discoveries about theCivil Rights Movement in Boston. In Part Two, “Big Ideas,” students discuss their deeperunderstandings of the topic as a result of their participation in the oral history project. They addressessential questions such as “Do people make history or vice versa?” In Part Three, “You Can Do It,”teachers and students talk about the process of conducting oral history interviews.Activities:Teachers can use the DVD with their classes in a variety of ways. Here are three suggestions:1. Ask students to describe an experience they may have had in using oral history to learn aboutthe past.2. Divide the class into groups. Each group should focus on one student in the video. Discusswhat that student learned from doing the project. What factual information did he/shemention? How did he/she relate to the process? What deeper understandings came to light forthe student? Each group will share its finding with the entire class.3. Watch the segment about “Big Ideas.” As a full class, discuss ideas about the role ofindividuals in history. How does change happen? Do people make history or vice versa?For copies of Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Movement, please contact Primary Source(www.primarysource.org or 617.923.9933).80101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights MovementBibliographyDickson, Diane, Heyler, Dick, Reilly, Linda G., Romano, Stephanie. The Oral History Project:Connecting Students to Their Community, Grades 4-8. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2006.Hickey, Gail M. “And Then what Happened, Grandpa? Oral History Projects in the ElementaryClassroom.” Social Education 55:4, (1991): 216-217.Drake, Sarah E. “Using Talking History to Teach Oral History and the Post-World War II Era.” OAHMagazine of History 17:2 (2003): 46-48.Walbert, Kathryn. Oral history and student learning. 2002. Learn NC: K-12 Teaching and Learningfrom the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education.http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/oh-learn0406-1Shopes, Linda. Making Sense of Oral History. February 2002. History Matters: The U.S. SurveyCourse on the Web.http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/What is History: Timelines and Oral History. July 2002. EDSitement: National Endowment for theHumanities.http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=406Mercier, Laurie, and Buckendorf, Madeline. Using Oral History in Community History Projects. OralHistory Association, 2007.Day, Noel. The Freedom House Movement in Boston. Boston, 1965. Available at the Primary SourceLibrary in Watertown, MA.Farragher, Thomas. “Beyond the Flag’s Fury.” Boston Globe (Boston) April 2, 2001.Farragher, Thomas. “Image of an Era.” Boston Globe (Boston) April 1, 2001.Forman, Stanley J. The Soiling of Old Glory (Image) Boston, 1976.Gill, Gerald. “The Keys to the Kingdom.” In The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader: Documents,Speeches, and Firsthand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle. Ed. D. Clar, et al. Blackside,Inc., 1991. 591-610.Gill, Gerald. Unpublished research. 2006In Motion: The African-American Experience. Schomburg Center for Research in BlackCulture. The New York Public Library.http://www.inmotionaame.org/home.cfm“Keys to the Kingdom (1974-1980)”. By Henry Hampton. Eyes on the Prize. 1990. DVD.A Production of Blackside, Inc.81101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights Movement“Long Road to Justice: The African-American Experience in the Massachusetts Courts,”The online edition of the Massachusetts Historical Society exhibition. Boston, 2000-2003. http://www.masshist.org/longroad/Morrison, Toni. Remember: The Journey to School Integration. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.Saphier, Jon, and Haley, MaryAnn. Summarizers: Activity Structures to SupportIntegration and Retention of New Learning. Acton, MA: Research for BetterTeaching, 1993.“The Promise: Brown v. Board of Education, The Civil rights Movement and Our School.”Rethinking Schools, 18:3 (Spring 2004).Transcripts of Boston Public School Committee meeting, June 11, 1963. Housed at the City ofBoston Archives.Vrabel. James. When in Boston. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004.“We Raise Our Voices: Celebrating Activism for Equality and Pride in Boston's African American,Feminist, Gay and Lesbian, and Latino Communities,” the online edition of a Northeastern UniversityLibraries exhibition. Boston: Northeastern University Libraries, 2003.URL: http://www.lib.neu.edu/archives/voices82101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

Discovering Boston’s Civil Rights MovementThank you to all of the students, educators, and participants who made this project a success:Joseph ZellnerDeborah WardL’Merchie FrazierStudents of Concord-Carlisle Regional High School, New Mission High School, and Wellesley HighSchoolGlendora PutnamHorace SeldonAndrew KeltonJeanie GoddardCheryl ObeleCharles WalkerRena MirkinMel KingOral History Project Collaborators:Primary SourceMuseum of African American HistoryWellesley High SchoolNew Mission High SchoolConcord-Carlisle Regional High SchoolProject funding provided by:Massachusetts Foundation for the HumanitiesPrimary SourceFoley Hoag, LLPImages and text provided by:Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs DivisionNortheastern UniversitySchlesinger LibraryBoston Public LibraryBoston GlobeBoston CollegeBoston City ArchivesSpecial Thanks To:Power and Protest Symposium Planning CommitteeJohn F. Kennedy Library and MuseumRoberta LoganJulie NewportMariann NogradyAnna RoelofsMichael Neel, Videographer83101 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 * 617.923.9933 * www.primarysource.org

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