James W. Fraser (collector) photograph collection

James W. Fraser was Professor and Dean of the School of Education and Director of the Center for Innovation in Urban Education at Northeastern University until 2006. He is now Professor of History and Education at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University and Senior Advisor to Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. He has been involved with Boston public schools since 1974 and has written about policy and the history of education, Boston schools, and religion and public education. He holds a bachelor's degree in American history, an MDiv, and a Ph.D. in the history of American education. Before he joined Northeastern University, Fraser was a faculty member and the Dean of Educational Studies and Public Policy at Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also was a bus monitor and rode the buses the first day of the desegregation of Boston public schools in 1974.

In June 1974, Judge W. Arthur Garrity, Jr. found the Boston School Committee guilty of willful segregation and called for forced busing of African-American students from Roxbury and other predominantly African-American neighborhoods, to predominantly white schools, including Hyde Park, South Boston, and Charlestown High Schools. Before the ruling, students were assigned to schools based on where they lived. As a result, schools were segregated based on the population of the students in the area. While in many schools the integration process went relatively smoothly, in Hyde Park, Charlestown, and South Boston, Garrity's integration plan resulted in anti-busing rallies and marches, as well as incidences of violence. In October 1974, after African-American students reacted violently to the stabbing of Andre Yvon Jean-Louis, Massachusetts Governor Francis W. Sargent called in the National Guard. School boycotts, anti-busing marches, and violence continued.

1965

Massachusetts passes a law against de facto segregation, the Racial Imbalance Act. It is not enforced.

1974

June 21

Judge Garrity finds Boston School Committee guilty of willful segregation.

Sept. 9

Restore Our Alienated Rights (ROAR) anti-busing rally.

Sept. 12

First day of Phase I busing. Attacks on African-American students and communities begin.

Oct. 7

Mob attacks André Yvon Jean-Louis.

Oct. 15

White student stabbed at Hyde Park High School; Governor Francis W. Sargent alerts National Guard.

Dec. 11

White student stabbed at South Boston High; African-American students trapped inside.

Dec. 15

Demonstration on Boston Common to end the use of busing as a means of desegregation.

1975

March

Anti-busing leaders from fourteen states, including Massachusetts, announce formation of a national coalition to seek an anti-busing amendment to the Constitution; Louise Day Hicks appointed chairman.

May 10

Judge Garrity issues desegregation plan for Phase II, expanding busing in fall.

Sept.

Phase II begins. Mothers' prayer march in Charlestown.

Oct.

White students walk out of South Boston and Charlestown High Schools; African-American students refuse to enter these schools because of daily attacks.

Dec. 9

Boston National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) office is firebombed.

1976

Feb 15

Fathers' march in South Boston ends in clash with police.

April 5

Theodore Landsmark, an African-American lawyer, is attacked on the steps of City Hall.

April

White-African-American violence escalates.

April 23

Mayor Kevin White leads "procession against violence" or "Prayer Procession for Peace."

June 14

Supreme Court refuses to hear appeals of Judge Garrity's Phase II orders.