A Timeline of Boston School Desegregation, 1961-1985

July 12Early AugustAugust 18September 9November 2The United State Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit overturns FederalDistrict Judge George C. Sweeney in Barksdale v. Springfield SchoolCommittee, holding that “racial imbalance that resulted from an impartialapplication of the neighborhood school plan was no equivalent to segregationand there was no constitutional right to its absolute elimination.”The Federal HEW investigation finds that Boston's segregated schools violatedthe Civil Rights Act of 1964. Four million dollars of federal funding may bewithheld if BSC does not develop a “realistic plan” by mid-September 1965.Gov. Volpe signs Racial Imbalance Act into law 11 . The Act requires all schoolcommittees in the Commonwealth to submit a plan for the elimination ofsegregated schools. Any committee that fails to do so will have state aidwithheld. 12Operation Exodus begins, lead by Ellen Jackson of Freedom House inRoxbury. 13 The program will bus black students at their parents expense toschools outside their area of open enrollment.. By September 12, 200 studentsare involved in the program. Students arriving at these schools wereconfronted with openly hostile student bodies, teachers and administration.Some arrived to school buildings with locked doors, some to classrooms fromwhich administrators had removed all the desks. For those that managed to getinto the building, many were physically segregated within the school buildingand put in their own room.BSC elections are held; Louise Day Hicks is elected to a third term after acampaign focusing on “Defending the Neighborhood School.” Other winningcandidates included Thomas Eisenstadt, Joseph Lee, and John J. McDonough.None of the NAACP's slate of candidates were successful.December 20 BSC and the Mayor agree to plan to increase school construction funds to $53million. At this time, BSC is preparing for submission to the BOE its planunder the Racial Imbalance Act in June, 1967, and construction of new schoolsis becoming more and more central to the contours of that plan. 141966January 15February 24April 15The Newton School Committee approves slots in Newton public schools forblack elementary-age students from Boston. The plan will allow the students tocontinue through Newton public schools after elementary school.BOE votes to reject BSC's integration plan submitted the previous December.They concluded the plan would aggravate racial imbalance in many Bostonschools and relied too heavily on new school construction without providingany means for immediate changes. 15Exodus announces to BOE that it plans to expand to 500 students.BSC rejects busing as a solution to Boston school segregation, while approving11 1965 Acts c. 641.12 Id. § II.13 USCOCR Report at 62; see also MRC Packet at 4-5.14 Boston School Committee, 1966-67 Plan Towards the Elimination of Racial Imbalance in the Public Schools, June1967.15 MRC Packet at 5.8