Fear, Apprehension, and Student Interest Leading up to Phase II

Public response reached as far as California. In this letter, a woman writes to Mayor White expressing her concern about the impending violence and unrest which she witnessed during desegregation efforts in Inglewood.

Despite the apprehension about Phase II, support still existed. In this telegram to Mayor White, students at Pittsburgh demand peaceful imlementation by "whatever force is needed" in order to prevent further attacks against black students.

Throughout the busing crisis, a wide range of responses to the attempted desegregation of Boston’s public schools presented themselves. As Phase II expanded to influence more schools and a wider range of age groups, fear and defiance continued to accompany any support for the program. But even as attention began to move away from acceptance of Garrity’s plan itself, there remained the debate about acceptable methods of resistance and public interaction. Some still justified extreme measures of protest and felt that passivity would only perpetuate issues of division. Consequently, the public apprehension toward busing as a method of integration remained significant. As implementation progressed, explicit language concerning violence prevention began to commonly appear among concerned parents, organizations, and other impacted parties.

A call for peaceful resistance appeared early in Phase I in many areas including Roxbury and South Boston, which at the time had become centers for violence and extreme protest. Even individuals who supported busing for integration began to call for increasing efforts to protect students. On October 23, 1974, the Cooper Community Center in Roxbury came together to vote on a public statement to be sent to Mayor White. In it, they express the necessity to remain peaceful in order to prevent the children from suffering further. The following is taken from this resolution:

…it is their deepest belief that violence and disobedience of the law makes, above everyone else, the children the injured parties. We in this country can not afford to have the childrens’ point of view and attitude to their companions wounded. We can not afford to generate hatred in any child regardless of color or age.

We recognize the right to protest, even by demonstrations, laws that are enacted. But this action must be taken without violence, scurrilous language or outright disobedience to the law.[1]

Leading up to Phase II, the aftermath of violence and division continued to perpetuate the affected neighborhoods, and hope for change increased as more schools were preparing to be incorporated. This letter from the Cooper Center embodies the plea for peaceful resistance.

The author of this letter identifies the apparency of the parents' influence on student's reactions to busing. A solution to the social division aggravated by busing could not target only the students if change was to occur.

A retired police officer warns against the potential for violent resistance as tensions increase.

Letter from a Buzzards Bay resident to Mayor Kevin White calling for a reanalysis of the deeper issues behind busing such as the quality of the schools themselves

A letter from a Dedham, Massachusetts resident to Mayor Kevin White reaffirming the necessity to protect the children affected by busing as the plan continues to be enforced

Parents began to impart discrimination, hate, and anger to their children, fueling the racial and community tension inspired by busing. The contagious state of these sentiments created a transferrable conflict that spread from the classrooms to the neighborhoods and many places in between. A Brighton resident wrote to Mayor White and explained that students they worked with both in Roxbury and South Boston felt a solution could be reached if the parents would no longer intervene. They go on to say, “Perhaps we can only hope that time is in fact a great healer, and the stereotypes that people have nurtured in their minds for years may quickly be dissolved.”[2]

Unfortunately, the violence did not end with these pleas, and concern escalated with the coming incorporation of Phase II. The fear expressed by parents sending their children into conflicted schools and neighborhoods spread to the public. The summer before the second phase began, a concerned retired police officer and citizen of Hull reached out to Mayor White intending to articulate this fear. He cautioned, “I am afraid of Phase Two. I did riot duty in Grove Hall the summer of 1967 and have seen what enmity, waste and despair can occur when wiser and cooler heads no longer prevail.”[3]

It is this atmosphere in which many students throughout Boston prepared to attend their newly assigned schools in the fall of 1975.

[1] Cooper Community Center, “Letter to Mayor Kevin White,” October 23, 1974, Mayor Kevin H. White records, 1929-1999 (Bulk, 1969-1983), Box 2, Folder 24, Boston City Archives.

[2]Redacted, “Letter to Mayor Kevin H. White,” October 15, 1974, Mayor Kevin H. White records, 1929-1999 (Bulk, 1969-1983), Box 3, Folder 2, Boston City Archives.

[3] Redacted, “Letter to Mayor Kevin H. White,” July 21, 1975, Mayor Kevin H. White records, 1929-1999 (Bulk, 1969-1983), Box 3, Folder 13, Boston City Archives.