Timeline of Events
1954: Landmark case, Oliver Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, is settled, dismantling legal basis for segregation within public schools. The ruling declared that racial segregation violates the rights of United States citizens according to the Constitution, which guarantees equal protection of laws for all American citizens.
April 1965: The Committee on Racial Imbalance and Education headed by Owen Kiernan, the Commissioner of Education titled, “Because it is Right-Educationally” is published. This report asserted that racial imbalance within schools is detrimental to the wellbeing of all children.
August 1965: Governor Volpe proposes the Racial Imbalance Act, calling for the Massachusetts State Board of Education to require desegregation plans from local school committees and withhold funds, if necessary. Local school committees are to formulate desegregation plans where de facto segregation exists.
1966: Boston School Committee takes Racial Imbalance Act to Massachusetts Supreme District Court, which rules against Boston School Committee. METCO established.
1968: Bilingual Education Act is passed by the Federal government, providing federal funding for bilingual education programs and decriminalizing the use of languages other than English in the classroom.
1971: Boston School Committee replaces open enrollment policy with controlled transfer policy. State Board of Education takes the Boston School Committee to court. Suit leads to the development of the desegregation plan later known as “Phase 1”. One wing of the Hennigan School opens with sixty-five percent black enrollment. School Committee makes no effort to recruit or assign white students, though school was built as part of the Racial Imbalance Plan. Lee School opens, built as part of the city’s racial imbalance plan. Events there lead J. Harold Flannery of the Harvard Center for Law and Education to conclude the School Committee is a sitting duck for a suit based on 14th Amendment Equal protection under the law. He and Robert Pressman join forces with lawyers Roger Abrams and John Leubsdort and they file suit on behalf of black parents.
1972: Massachusetts State Legislature passes Chapter 766, the most comprehensive and inclusive legislation on educating people with disabilities of any state in the nation. It mandates that educational services provide the maximum feasible benefit to students identified with special needs and that these services be provided in the least restrictive environment possible. Class action suit filed on behalf of fifteen parents and forty-three children, lead plaintiff is Tallulah Morgan. Case is known as Morgan v. Hennigan. Sixty-eight schools in Boston are racially imbalanced; 30,000 students use public transportation to get to school. The State of Massachusetts orders the Boston School Committee to produce a racially balanced student assignment plan. School Committee says it will appoint a committee to develop a plan. State Board of Education rejects this, proposes its own plan. The Massachusetts Superior Court finds the State plan involves unnecessary busing, but that a hearing should be held before an administrative master. Professor Jaffe is appointed and holds the hearings.
June 21, 1974: Judge W. Arthur Garrity finds for the plaintiffs in Morgan vs. Hennigan; states Boston School Committee had engaged in segregation. As a preliminary measure, Garrity orders the School Committeeto implement the State Board of Education’s Racial Imbalance plan (referred to as the State Plan) until they produced a plan of their own for desegregation. This period becomes known as “Phase 1”.
September 12, 1974: First day of school. ROAR, Restore our Alienated Rights and anti-busing group, calls for a two-week boycott of schools and violence in South Boston and citywide leaves eighteen school buses damaged.
September 13, 1974: Mayor Kevin White calls in police. Boston Police Union asserts they were not obligated to obey orders to make arrests. A court order allows the Mayor to draw on the State Police from neighboring cities and the National Guard.
October 1974: Judge Garrity issues orders establishing Racial Ethnic Parent Councils in every school. Citywide Parents Advisory Council also established. These two councils become the officially sanctioned vehicle for parent involvement. Judge Garrity orders Supreme Court to file a desegregation plan by December 16th to be implemented September of 1975.
December 1974: El Comite de los Padres petitions court to meddle in Morgan vs. Hennigan. School Committee votes against approving the desegregation plans developed by the school department. Violence erupts at South Boston High School. Boston School Committee is held in civil contempt and the court of appeals declines to stay the ruling.
January 1975: The School Committee files its plan for Phase II; the plan does not include busing. The plaintiffs file an alternative plan, as does the Home and School Association. Numerous community groups file criticism and comments on the School Committee’s plan. On January 27, 1975, the School Committee submits a new plan, which again involves no busing. It is rejected by Judge Garrity and he appoints a team of four court masters and two desegregation experts to devise a plan. The newly appointed Masters are Edward McCormick, Jacob J. Speigel, Francis Keppel and Charles Willie. The experts are Marvin Scott and Robert Dentler. South Boston High School is placed in receivership, with area superintendent, Joseph McDonough named as receiver.
March 21, 1975: Court masters and two desegregation experts produce a desegregation plan, released as a preliminary draft. Garrity rejects their draft and orders court experts, Marvin Scott and Robert Dentler to further modify the Masters’ Plan.
May 10, 1975: Phase II, Court experts’ revise Masters’ Plan and release it in a comprehensive desegregation order issued by the Federal Court. It creates a citywide magnet district and several community school districts, as well as closing numerous schools; creating college/university – school pairings; requiring more busing and reassigning students once again. The plan also creates citizen participation groups and calls for a Citywide Coordinating Council (CCC) to monitor the carrying out of desegregation court orders in the Boston Public Schools. The plan has many firsts for school desegregation cases: it is the first time a state level department of education has been involved in the remedy of a school desegregation case; the first time a citizen group is given authority to monitor; and the first time a desegregation education case combined quality of education with desegregating the schools.
April 1976: Jerome Winegar replaces McDonough as receiver for South Boston High School.
May 1976: Phase II-B, Modified Phase II. Court emphasizes continuity and stability. Gregory Anrig says that financing of bilingual education in Boston is inadequate.
June 10, 1976: Allen v. McDonough filed, alleging a system-wide failure in Boston Public Schools to evaluate and prepare educational plans for students referred for special education, and to conduct periodic reviews to monitor progress in accordance with state regulations.
May 6, 1977: Phase III called for the establishment of conditions to enable the court to terminate its jurisdiction. Ordered the creation of a permanent Department of Implementation to carry out desegregation and a long-range plan for construction and repair of facilities (The Unified Facilities Plan).
August 1977: Bilingual parents protest outside Federal court and School Committee headquarters. Parents object to 2,000 bilingual students being sent to different schools throughout the city.
September 1977: Phase III begins: Monitoring duties transferred from the CCC to the Department of Implementation. School administrators monitored and racial statistics gathered for compilation into annual reports to measure progress towards racial balance.
November 1977: John O’ Bryant is elected to the Boston School Committee, becoming the body’s first black member in the 20th century. July 1978 Dr. Robert Wood elected as Boston’s new superintendent of Schools — a result of the first nationwide search.
August 1978: South Boston High School receivership lifted.
June 1979: Judge Garrity lists criteria for the withdrawal of the Federal Court from the desegregation school case. Massachusetts Board of Education approves twenty-two changes in the Chapter 766 regulations.
June 1981: Judge Garrity asks all parties in the desegregation case to prepare a Consent Decree so that he can withdraw from the case. School Committee votes to close twenty-one schools.
December 1982: Judge Garrity turns over the monitoring of desegregation in Boston schools to the State Board of Education. Court of Appeals upholds Garrity’s order requiring teacher preference to minorities.
January 1984: Superintendent Robert Spillane proposes Long Range Education Plan. Thirteen member SC seated.
September 1985: Judge Garrity issues final orders in the desegregation case. Dr. Laval S. Wilson becomes Boston’s first black School Superintendent. Districts 3 and 4 become experimental districts for allowing parents of elementary school children to choose any school in the experimental district for their children to attend. Reorganization of districts approved by the court for administrative purposes. Districts 1 and 2 become A, 3 and 4, B; 5 and 6, C; 7 and 8, D; 9, E.
1986: Bus strike lasts almost three weeks. Court orders the Boston Public Schools to compensate the parents of special education students twenty dollars for each day of school missed.
1994: United States Federal District Court of Massachusetts issues its final judgment in Morgan vs. Hennigan, permanently barring the School Committee from practicing racial discrimination in the public schools.
1995: The Boston Latin Case: Michael C. McLaughlin, the father/lawyer of a white student named Julia McLaughlin, files complaint alleging that her 14th Amendment rights (under the United States Constitution) were violated when she was denied admission to the Boston Latin School because of a racially conscious admissions policy.
November 1996: U.S. District Judge dismisses the Boston Latin Case after the exam schools agree to revise their policies, which reserved thirty-five percent of the student slots for African-Americans and Hispanics. The new policy reserves half of the seats in the district’s three “exam schools” for students with the highest scores. The other slots are filled through a system that considers both test scores and race.
1997: Michael C. McLaughlin files suit again; this time on the behalf of another white student, Sarah Wessman, who was denied admission under the newly adopted admission policy. He seeks an injunction in the U.S. District Court of Boston to allow Sara to enter Boston Latin School’s ninth grade in the fall of 1998.
1998: In the United States District Court of Massachusetts, Chief Judge Joseph Tauro ruled that the Boston Latin School admissions policy was justified and achieving a racially diverse student body does not violate the United States Constitution. The United States Court of Appeals, however, reversed the ruling, holding the policy unconstitutional. As a result, fewer African American and Hispanic students now attend Boston Latin School and Boston Latin Academy than during the years of court-ordered school desegregation.
October 2004: Boston School Committee selected as the recipient of the first Award for Urban School Board Excellence from the National School Boards Association/Council of Urban Boards of Education (NSBA/CUBE). The Boston School Committee was chosen for this award for demonstrating excellence in four core areas: board governance, closing the achievement gap, academic achievement, and community engagement.
December 2004: Thirtieth anniversary of the Morgan case: “Boston schools are racially segregating once again. Many factors, including the continuing migration of white families from the city and segregated neighborhood housing patterns, undoubtedly contribute to increasing segregation in Boston schools. However, the elimination of voluntary racial fairness guidelines in school assignments and the inability to take race into account in making admissions decisions in the exam schools further exacerbate the difficulty of maintaining a racially diverse school system.” Nancy McArdle, The Boston Globe, December 18, 2004.
** For more information regarding this timeline and the desegregation era files available for use at the Boston City Archives, please consult the finding aid for the Desegregation-era Records Collection, 1952 – 2004; bulk: 1975 – 2000. Boston Public Schools. **
** You can also consult this timeline created by Jeremy Wolff of Northeastern University School of Law. **
