Showing Collections: 1 - 10 of 10
Boston Society of Vulcans of Massachusetts records
Collection
Identifier: M131
Overview
The Boston Society of Vulcans of Massachusetts was founded in 1971 for the recruitment of African American and other minorities into the fire service. In 1972 the Boston Society of Vulcans, with assistance from the NAACP, Attorney Thomas Mela, and the Justice Department, filed a class action suit against the Civil Service Commission, which resulted in the City of Boston having to hire minorities on a one to one basis until they represented 26% of the fire fighting force. In addition to...
Dates:
1951-2004; Majority of material found within 1970-2000
Citywide Educational Coalition records
Collection
Identifier: M130
Overview
In 1972, Mary Ellen Smith, Hubert Jones, Francis Parkman, Clyde Miller and other citizens, parents, and community activists met to find a way to participate in the process of choosing a superintendent of the Boston Public Schools. The Coalition sought input from large numbers of neighborhood residents and organizations to help develop "Community Agenda for the Boston Public Schools," an outline of questions and issues to use during the interview process. Although unsuccessful in choosing a...
Dates:
1972-2001
Freedom House, Inc. records
Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: M016
Overview
Freedom House was founded in 1949 by African American social workers Otto P. and Muriel S. Snowden. It grew out of their initial community organizing with the Council on Community Affairs of Upper Roxbury (1947-1949). The initial goal of Freedom House was to centralize community activism in the fight for neighborhood improvement, good schools, and harmony among racial, ethnic, and religious groups in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Otto Snowden was the Director of St. Mark Social Center when he...
Dates:
1941-2004; Majority of material found within 1949-1986
James W. Fraser (collector) photograph collection
Collection
Identifier: M066
Overview
In June 1974, Judge W. Arthur Garrity, Jr. found the Boston School Committee guilty of willful segregation and called for forced busing of 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...
Dates:
1905-ca. 1990; Majority of material found within 1974-1976
Lower Roxbury Black History Project records
Collection
Identifier: M165
Overview
On 9 November 2006, Northeastern University President Joseph E. Aoun met with members of the Black Ministerial Alliance of Massachusetts at the People's Baptist Church (830 Tremont Street, Boston) to discuss possible collaborations between Northeastern and Lower Roxbury clergy. During the meeting, Reverend Michael E. Haynes suggested the University create a history of the African American community in Lower Roxbury. As a result, President Aoun appointed Joseph D. Warren, at that time Special...
Dates:
2007-2009
Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, Inc. records
Collection
Identifier: M101
Overview
Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, Incorporated (METCO, Inc.) is a private nonprofit organization founded in 1966 to eliminate racial imbalance by busing children from Boston and Springfield to suburban public schools in 38 suburban communities. The program was created more than three decades ago by educational collaborators, parents, and suburban citizens from metropolitan Boston and Boston's suburbs as a voluntary desegregation program. Its mission is "to provide, through...
Dates:
1961-2005; Majority of material found within 1966-1995
Muriel S. and Otto P. Snowden papers
Collection
Identifier: M017
Overview
Muriel S. and Otto P. Snowden were the founders and co-directors of Freedom House, a center for neighborhood improvement and community activism in the racially mixed neighborhood of Roxbury, Massachusetts. From 1949 until their retirement in 1984, the Snowdens were influential leaders in Boston's African American community. Muriel S. Snowden was raised in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, graduated from Radcliffe College in 1938, and attended the New York School of Social Work from 1943-1945. She...
Dates:
1911-1990; Majority of material found within 1947-1985
Ronald W. Bailey oral history collection
Collection
Identifier: M153
Overview
In 1989 and 1990, Milton Derr, Mel King, and Byron Rushing, three prominent members of Boston's African American community, were interviewed about their lives and work in preparation for a book by Ronald W. Bailey with Diane Turner and Robert Hayden, entitled Lower Roxbury: A Community of Treasures in the City of Boston. Milton Derr, a painter, illustrator and retired teacher, was born in 1932 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He moved to Boston to study at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and...
Dates:
1989-1990
The Justice George Lewis Ruffin Society records
Collection
Identifier: M124
Overview
The George Lewis Ruffin Society was founded in 1984 in response to dwindling numbers of minority police officers in the Boston Police Department. Its goals are to create greater understanding and communication between minority communities and the criminal justice system through annual convocations, events, courses, workshops and "The Long Road to Justice" traveling exhibit which documents the history of African Americans in Massachusetts.
Dates:
undated, 1848-2009; Majority of material found within 1984-2005
Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts records
Collection
Identifier: M139
Overview
The Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, (a community-based movement devoted to empowering African Americans and other people of color to enter into the economic and social main stream), began its work in 1917 when a group of citizens led by Eugene Kunkle Jones met to discuss ways to help the growing number of black migrants from the South and immigrants from the West Indies find housing and employment in Boston. Once established, it became an affiliate of the National Urban League and...
Dates:
1953-2007; Majority of material found within 1985-2000