Updated September 24, 2024
Let’s take a walk down the block.
Today, we’re starting on Beacon Hill, where tales of Paul Revere and other famous Americans abound. But we’re exploring a history that’s more hidden. This is a walking tour of the pivotal sites of Boston’s school desegregation crisis.
Outside 15 Beacon St., Vernita Carter-Weller describes how in 1965, her father, the Rev. Vernon Carter, waged a freedom vigil in protest of segregation in public schools.
“He decided that he was going to put on a placard and that he was going to walk out in front of the Boston School Committee building until the Racial Imbalance Act was passed,” Carter-Weller said. “And he did that for 114 days and five hours.”
Years later, the tumultuous enforcement of that law would become known as the city’s busing crisis.