Many consider the American South as the place where the struggle against Jim Crow laws, school segregation and civil rights took place. Yet, racism was just as deeply rooted in the North鈥攁nd in Boston. Despite its reputation as the historic 鈥渃radle of liberty鈥� and headquarters of the abolitionist movement, racial conflict exploded in Boston in 1974 in protest against a court order that desegregated schools by busing students in and out of previously segregated districts.
The history of Boston鈥檚 Black community is the subject of听Before Busing: A History of Boston鈥檚 Long Black Freedom Struggle, by Zebulon V. Miletsky, PhD, an associate professor of Africana studies at Stony Brook University, native Bostonian and this year鈥檚 John Hope Franklin Distinguished Lecturer. On February 22, Dr. Miletsky will draw on his research chronicling 350 years of Black history in Massachusetts, culminating in 1974鈥檚 racial unrest.
Here, he shares some insights on topics he will address in his upcoming John Hope Franklin Distinguished Lecture:听鈥�Before Busing: A History of Boston鈥檚 Long Black Freedom Struggle.鈥�
The school busing crisis in Boston exposed long dormant racial conflict. How do you explain this paradox?
Boston is a city of myths. It鈥檚 the nation鈥檚 cradle of liberty. Places like Boston Latin School, the first public high school, and Harvard, America鈥檚 oldest college, take on mythic power. And there鈥檚 the myth of northern liberalism that Martin Luther King Jr. talked about.
Nineteenth-century Boston was rabidly antislavery. Yet by the early 20th听century, equal rights were hotly contested. The rise of the Irish in Boston and the class wars that were playing out in Boston were major factors in this conflict. Deconstructing where they fit on a hierarchy of whiteness is important to understanding the paradox of Boston鈥檚 long Black freedom struggle.
Who spearheaded the movement to make school desegregation a reality in Boston?
Many Black people who had made their way to Boston from the South came expecting a better education, but instead got the same treatment as where they had come from.
A justice movement led by 14 black families in Boston鈥攚hose names have been hidden until recently鈥攍ed to the courts, which was the only recourse available to them. Their successful lawsuit in the tradition of听Brown v. Board of Education听resulted in the 1974 court order to desegregate Boston鈥檚 schools and break Jim Crow鈥檚 hold over education in the North.
The upcoming 果酱视频 Two Museums: United We Stand program will take Black and Jewish students to Washington, D.C., to visit the African American and Holocaust museums. Do you think this program will make an impact in the fight against racism and antisemitism?
Absolutely. In the current climate, this is something we need to talk about.
What drew you to the study of Black history in Boston and Massachusetts?
Growing up in Boston and going to school after the schools were desegregated, I could still feel the pain of the past and the lingering emotional scar that required healing and justice.
I want to open the closed doors that I grew up with, and reveal the things that have long been hidden in plain sight. That鈥檚 what my book is about.
What are your current projects?
I鈥檓 pulling material from different people I鈥檝e collaborated with for an edited volume on new directions in Boston African American history and school desegregation. There鈥檚 not much on the Boston Black freedom struggle, which is so muddied and complex. We have to figure out what happened and went wrong in Boston before figuring what鈥檚 wrong in America.
I鈥檓 also working on my next book about interracial marriage and passing in Boston and Massachusetts. There鈥檚 truth to the myth that Boston was more racially permissive in the 19th听and early 20th听centuries. Yet southerners used Boston as an example of interracial marriage gone wild at the time.