The old Boston and the new Boston -- To hell with urban renewal -- Community organizers and advocacy planners -- A rekindled civil rights movement -- From school reform to desegregation -- The conflict over the Vietnam conflict -- The media and the protest movements -- Mothers for adequate welfare -- The illusion of inclusion and assault by acronyms -- A new threat from newcomers; gentrification -- Do-it-yourself community development -- Public housing on trial -- The tenants' movement and rent control -- People before highways -- The mothers of Maverick Street -- Shadow boxing in the public garden -- Boston jobs for Boston residents -- The battle over busing -- Fighting for a fair share -- A downturn in activism -- Back to the neighborhoods -- Boston today.
Summary:
Although Boston today is a vibrant and thriving city, it was anything but that in the years following World War II. By 1950 it had lost a quarter of its tax base over the previous twenty-five years, and during the 1950s it would lose residents faster than any other major city in the country. Credit for the city's turnaround since that time is often given to a select group of people, all of them men, all of them white, and most of them well off. In fact, a large group of community activists, many of them women, people of color, and not very well off, were also responsible for creating the Boston so many enjoy today. This book provides a grassroots perspective on the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s, when residents of the city's neighborhoods engaged in an era of activism and protest unprecedented in Boston since the American Revolution. Using interviews with many of those activists, contemporary news accounts, and historical sources, Jim Vrabel describes the demonstrations, sit-ins, picket lines, boycotts, and contentious negotiations through which residents exerted their influence on the city that was being rebuilt around them. He includes case histories of the fights against urban renewal, highway construction, and airport expansion; for civil rights, school desegregation, and welfare reform; and over Vietnam and busing. He also profiles a diverse group of activists from all over the city, including Ruth Batson, Anna DeFronzo, Moe Gillen, Mel King, Henry Lee, and Paula Oyola. Vrabel tallies the wins and losses of these neighborhood Davids as they took on the Goliaths of the time, including Boston's mayors. He shows how much of the legacy of that activism remains in Boston today. Jim Vrabel is a longtime Boston community activist and historian. Publisher's note.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.