Charles L. Glenn papers

Charles Glenn (1938-) is an educator, writer, and former Massachusetts state official focusing on pedagogy, educational policy, and diversity in education. He received a PhD in Religion and Modern Culture from Boston University in 1987 and an EdD in Administration and Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1972. He attended Harvard University, earning his BA in English and Comparative Literature in 1959. His educational background also includes theological studies at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California, the University of Tübingen, and the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During the 1960s, he served as a minister in Roxbury and became involved in the civil rights movement, participating in protests and mobilization. These experiences would later inform his role in education reform.

From August 1970 to September 1991, Glenn was Director of Urban Education and Equity under the Massachusetts Department of Education. He developed the procedures by which racial integration and bilingual education would be implemented in Massachusetts public schools. He administered school desegregation and equal opportunity plans in the state and reported on the outcomes of these efforts. After initial desegregation efforts were met with resistance in 1974, he worked to develop the magnet school program, which combined parent choice mechanisms and racial integration guidelines to advance equity in education.

Glenn researches and publishes on “urban schooling, parental choice, schooling of linguistic and racial minority pupils, religion and education, history and sociology of education, reconciling national standards with school autonomy and distinctiveness, school desegregation, and equity.” As of 2025, he is Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Boston University, vice president of International Organization for the Right to Education and Freedom of Education, and a member of various international associations and committees that work to promote educational freedom.

1959

Cambridge, MA

Receives Bachelor of Arts, in English and Comparative Literature from Harvard University.

1959-1961

Berkeley, CA

Studies Biblical Studies at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

1961-1962

Studies Evangelical Theology at the University of Tübingen.

1962-1964

Cambridge, MA

Studies Biblical Studies at the Episcopal Theological School.

1960s

Serves as a minister in Roxbury, becomes involved in the civil rights movement.

1968-1972

Cambridge, MA

Receives Doctor of Education in Administration and Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

1970-1991

Serves as Director of Urban Education and Equity Efforts for the Massachusetts Department of Education.

1982-1987

Boston, MA

Receives PhD in Religion and Modern Culture from Boston University.

May 17 1954

The US Supreme Court rules on Brown v. Board of Education, determining that separate educational facilities inherently violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

1961

NAACP officials exert pressure on the Boston School Committee (BSC) to integrate schools in the city. Open hearings, boycotts, and litigation are used to demand equal access to education.

June 11 1963

The Boston NAACP stages a sit-in at a meeting of the BSC. Leaders present a list of 14 demands that center on eliminating inequality and ending segregation in Boston schools. The BSC refuses to acknowledge these demands or to commit to change.

June 18 1963

On "Stay Out Day", over 3,000 students boycott their regular classes to attend "Freedom Schools" at churches and community centers in the city.

1963-1965

Protests, boycotts, and sit-ins continue. Martin Luther King, Jr. comes to Boston and leads a march and rally on Boston Common on April 23, 1965. Reverend Vernon Carter holds a 114-day Freedom Vigil outside of the BSC's headquarters, demanding action be taken to desegregate Boston's schools.

1964-1965

The Massachusetts Commission on Racial Imbalance is created and publishes its Racial Imbalance Report. The report finds that racial imbalance in schools is educationally harmful to all children and that 55 schools in Massachusetts have an enrollment of minority students over 50%. The Committee recommends redistricting, building new schools, and busing, supported by state aid.

1965-1966

Black families pursue alternate means to provide their children with a better education. Parents take advantage of the Open Enrollment Policy, which allows children to transfer to better schools as long as their parents assume responsibility for their transportation. Ellen Jackson and Betty Johnson found Operation Exodus, an all-volunteer program to coordinate the complicated scheduling logistics involved. The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) program enables thousands of children to access suburban schools for a better education than that available to them in Boston.

August 18 1965

The Massachusetts Racial Imbalance Act is signed into law. The new law requires the state to take action against school districts in which over fifty percent of the student population is comprised of minority students. After refusal to comply by the BSC, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court orders a busing plan be drawn up to integrate Boston's schools.

1970s

Thousands of Bostonians protest desegregation and "forced busing", and demand the repeal of the Racial Imbalance Law.

March 14 1972

In Morgan v. Hennigan, the NAACP files a class-action lawsuit against the BSC on behalf of 14 Black parents and 44 children, alleging its student assignment policies willfully enable segregation. The case is pursued as a violation of 13th and 14th Amendments, as well as the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

June 21 1974

Judge W. Arthur Garrity rules in favor of the plaintiffs in Morgan v. Hennigan, finding the schools to be unconstitutionally segregated. Garrity orders busing, improved curricula, expanded hiring, new partnerships, and a two-phase student assignment plan to achieve desegregation.

1974-1977

Fierce opposition to the new student assignment plans results in unrest, violence, boycotts and protests. Political change follows despite the turmoil, with anti-busing leaders losing various elections to minority leaders. Boston's school system continues to address challenges and improve access to education for all.