MEMORANDUM

To:         Representative of Black Parents to the Mayor’s Meeting on School Integration

From:       Black parent-teacher group leadership

Re:         Confidential information on our positions regarding school integration

Though many of us have grown up in our neighborhoods, we have very mixed feelings about them.  One the one hand, we recognize that we feel more comfortable in a black neighborhood than we ever would in a white neighborhood.  On the other hand, we are concerned about rising crime rates, and we are disgusted by the state of our neighborhood schools.  However, most of us find it unlikely that we could afford to move out of the neighborhood anytime soon: our working-class salaries generally make it difficult for us to meet our expenses and balance our personal finances at the best of times.  We formed this loose association because we intend to stay here, and we want to make the best of it.  Among other things, this means obtaining a certain quality of education for our children.

Some among us actually work as teachers or substitute teachers, so apart from the general knowledge we gain as parents of schoolchildren, our group is acutely aware of the problems in our neighborhood schools.  Most of the schools look like they are falling apart, and they are sorely lacking in supplies.  Some years our children don’t even get their own textbooks because there are not enough to go around.  Luxuries such as field trips, or science equipment, are out of the question – there just isn’t enough money.  The teachers try hard for the most part, but many of them are very inexperienced.  We are also worry about some of the gang and drug-related activity that goes on in the local high schools. 

More than anything, we want our children to get a decent education.  Unfortunately, we know that our schools will not get any better without receiving more funds, and that the schools are not likely to get more money unless they are integrated.  In the words of a local community center director,

‘If the rain drips into the school library and there are only blacks sitting in that library, then nothing is going to change.  If white kids are sitting in that library too, things are going to change.  That roof is going to get fixed.’[1]

It is clear to us that the schools in white neighborhoods have far better facilities, supplies, and teachers than the schools in Roxbury.  The differences were made even starker when some of us managed to get our children into the METCO program for several school years.  Our parents with children who participate in METCO always rave about how good the suburban schools are.  Others among us are on the waiting list for METCO, but it is unclear whether the program is large enough to accommodate more participants.  In any event, some of us wonder why our children should have to commute to the suburbs in order to receive a decent education.     

Judge Garrity’s recent decision in Morgan v. Hennigan is a huge ray of hope.  If the Boston schools are integrated, our children are bound to get a better education.  As far as we are concerned, school reassignments and busing programs cannot begin soon enough:  any time wasted in integrating the schools is time wasted on our children’s education.  Our community is fairly united in this belief.  As one black Bostonian wrote to Judge Garrity:

It seems remarkable that a full ten years since the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed before Black children in Boston could hope for integrated and equal education.  What is equally astounding is that, except for your proper and courageous decision and clarity of purpose, such a miscarriage of constitutional rights would have continued.

As a citizen with a deeply rooted sense that equality under law means equality regardless of race (or sex), I feel indebted to your historic decision.

My only regret is that some citizens in Boston, our fair city, have responded as did Southern Whites in the early ‘60’s at the prospect of integration.  My hope is now that equality of education is a realistic goal, the economic and social status of my Black brothers and sisters during the 70’s and 80’s will become more equal in the North – as it has become in the South.

Cordially,

[A grateful citizen][2]

We are determined to represent the interests of these and other black parents in Boston by pushing for safe, effective desegregation measures as well additional steps to improve public education in Boston and the relationships among the different Boston communities.  Our community group has elected you to represent the parents of black Boston schoolchildren because of your excellent negotiation skills and your keen understanding of our position and interests.

Following is more information on the main issues in the negotiation, our main goals on each issue, and some options that you may propose to help resolve the issues on our behalf, as a representative of black Boston parents.  Because the NAACP represents the blacks population as well, you must listen closely to the NAACP’s proposals regarding these issues, and consider going along with them as long as they do not appear to conflict with any interests or positions that the black parents group has shared with you.

We seriously doubt that desegregation will be accomplished through voluntary programs alone.  There is simply too much resistance from the white community.  We must therefore be realistic about our options.  Even though our goal is immediate, mandatory school reassignments to desegregate the schools as soon as possible, we would like to create and maintain some programs that offer additional schooling options.  As parents, we understand the desirability of voluntary desegregation programs.  Most parents take a strong interest in their children’s education, and would appreciate programs that allow some school choice.

The existing voluntary desegregation programs – METCO and Operation Exodus – are popular among the black community, and typically have long waiting lists.  Accordingly, you will insist that the METCO and Operation Exodus programs be maintained, and you must advocate for their expansion to the maximum possible extent.  We are not sure how much these programs can actually be expanded, but we suspect that they could both be expanded significantly with financial support from the state Board of Education and/or the Mayor’s office.

We do not think that the entire burden of desegregation should fall on black students, so we would also like to see some sort of voluntary program that would allow white students as well as black students to opt for more racially balanced schools.  You should also support the creation of new magnet schools designed to attract a racially balanced mix of black and white students.  We are not sure what level of funding might be available for new magnet schools, but at least one new magnet school per year for the next three years sounds reasonable to us.

We are certain that voluntary steps alone will not be sufficient to achieve integration, so we prefer a combination of immediate, mandatory school reassignments and voluntary programs.  Black parents do not perceive the Glenn plan to be a bad option – at least it is a specific plan for immediate desegregation action – but we are concerned about its pairing of South Boston and Roxbury students.  Southie is the toughest, poorest white neighborhood in the city, and Roxbury is the toughest, poorest black neighborhood.  We would prefer an immediate desegregation plan that is not as likely to result in protests and violence.  After all, keeping our kids safe is just as important as ensuring equal educational opportunity.

Your preference should be for a type of immediate, mandatory school reassignment plan that would reassign both black and white students to schools in racially balanced proportions, but the plan must not mix students from Roxbury with students from South Boston.  This type of plan would be something similar to the Glenn plan, except for the Roxbury – South Boston mix.

Alternatively, we would be satisfied with a phased-in school reassignment plan, as long as it begins immediately.  If the group is not willing to go along with an immediate, system-wide school reassignment plan, you should propose immediate, mandatory reassignment of just the entry-level grades for elementary, intermediate, and high school.  In other words, a sufficient number of black and white first, sixth, and ninth graders would be reassigned to different schools to achieve racial balance in those grades.  The same thing would happen to the first, sixth, and ninth graders next year, and the year after that, so that the entire school system would be integrated within four years.  The reason for reassigning only the entry-level grades is that most students change schools in those grades anyway:  they’re either entering school for the first time, or changing from an elementary to an intermediate school, or changing from an intermediate school to a high school.  Reassigning students in those grades wouldn’t be as disruptive as, say, reassigning a high school senior who has attended the same high school for three years already – or reassigning a sensitive seventh-grader like your daughter, who has finally grown accustomed to her intermediate (sixth grade through eighth grade) school.  We think that this type of proposal is likely to appeal to many different groups: the plan would take immediate steps toward integration and achieve full integration within four years while causing only a minimal educational disruption for students already in school.

If you experience a great deal of resistance to any form of immediate reassignment plan (either system-wide reassignment, like the Glenn plan, or a phased reassignment plan at the entry-level grades), you should be willing to accept a one-year trial period of voluntary desegregation measures – only if you are guaranteed that system-wide mandatory desegregation measures would be implemented automatically should the voluntary measures fail.  This is as far as we are willing to compromise: after all, the black plaintiffs won the Morgan v. Hennigan case, and deserve a serious desegregation remedy.  You should not accept anything less than either an immediate school reassignment plan for the entry-level grades, or a one-year trial period of voluntary measures followed by guaranteed system-wide desegregation measures if the voluntary measures fail. 

Some black parents advocate the creation of new, racially balanced schools.  As a group, our official position is that we are certain that the creation of new schools will not be sufficient by itself to desegregate the current schools, however, we do believe that new schools would benefit everyone.  Therefore, you may support the creation of new, racially balanced schools, but only as a supplement to other desegregation measures.  New schools alone will not be enough.

The black community believes that true integration requires a number of educational and social reforms beyond simple “racial balancing.”  As METCO Executive Director Robert Hayden pointed out in an interview three years ago:

There is a need for a comprehensive program for sensitizing suburban teachers, guidance counselors and administrators to the needs and background of black children.  There is a critical need for white faculties to acquire knowledge, attitudes and skills to teach and work effectively in an integrated school.  There must be a rethinking of the curriculum, ‘integrating black’ into history, literature, music, art, science, and the entire program for grades K-12.  The reshaping should include other minorities as well.  It must go beyond just having ‘black’ books and periodicals on library shelves.  There must be programs adequate for METCO students.  At the high school level, there may be a need for programs for students who are college-oriented and for those who are not.  Schools need to be prepared to deal with severe problems in reading and mathematics, a result of miseducation and poor education in the past.[3] 

In the following letter to Judge Garrity, one black teacher echoed Mr. Hayden’s call for teacher integration and laid the blame at the feet of the School Committee:

Dear Sir:

Your recent decision, in re: the Boston School System, has done a great deal to restore minority people’s faith in the judicial system.  The demise of ex Supreme Court Chief Justice, Earl Warren, led me to write you.  I think that people need recognition and thanks while they are living.

 . . . I could write a book on some of my experiences and observations about Boston’s School System.  Being black is a challenge.  Being black in a biased white majority is an added burden.  Boston schools suffer from inherited neglect.

  . . . There are few black teachers in the Boston High Schools.  They have never received any type of recognition.  We are disregarded in terms of appointments, promotions, and assignments.  We are merely tolerated.  I do not know of one black assistant headmaster or headmaster.

 . . . Frankly, I blame the method of school committee selection and election which places the Boston Schools in the hands of people who are over anxious to further their political careers.  These people encourage and incite their constituency to disregard and often, disobey the ‘law of the Land.’  Little, if any, inspirational leadership is offered.  Most of the School Committee have no experience in multi ethnic situations.  They are not conditioned to offer leadership.

You will recall that a former associate superintendent stated that he found the schools heavily slanted toward segregation and that he did nothing to reassign students to relieve the growing segregation.  Please accept my thanks and admiration for a decision superbly fashioned and executed. . . .You have earned a place among the great jurist[s].[4]

One black parent wanted to go on the record with the following statement:

There is talk among black [Bostonians] that METCO, which has a waiting list in the thousands, should be drastically expanded in coming years.  Another hope of blacks is the passage of a referendum on Nov. 5 that would do away with the Boston School Committee, make the school system a department of the city government, and establish elected neighborhood school boards all over the city.[5]

In general, we want to make the most of this historic opportunity to get a better education for our children, and for other black children in Boston.  Therefore, you must push for the following improvements:

At a minimum, you will insist on counseling or some other type of support program to assist newly integrated black students.  We do not want to see any black students missing the benefits of an integrated education because of any psychological pressures they might experience because of school reassignments.

Summary Of Black Parents’ Goals

And Minimum Acceptable Outcomes:

What (if any) voluntary steps should be taken to integrate schools?

Goal: Greatly expand METCO and Operation Exodus programs and build new magnet schools, but only as a supplement to mandatory integration measures; create new magnet schools.

Minimum: Keep existing METCO and Operation Exodus programs.

What (if any) mandatory steps should be taken to integrate schools?

Goal: Immediate school reassignment and busing of both black and white students to achieve racial balance throughout Boston.

Minimum:  Phased school reassignment at the entry-level grades for elementary, intermediate, and high school; or mandatory school reassignment and busing following a 1 – 2 year trial period of voluntary integration measures, if the voluntary measures do not result in sufficient integration.

How will education quality and community relations be improved?

Goal:  Substantial changes in school culture (books, curriculum, support groups) and faculty (hiring of blacks and diversity training).

Minimum:  Some sort of program to support black students in newly integrated schools.