Truth, Learning, and Change

The public school education system in Boston has been under controversy for decades. For years until the late 1960’s the Boston Public school system operated under a separate but equal policy* which segregated the White population of children  from the Black population of children. The alleged premise of separate but equal claimed that the only difference between the two systems was the color of the children’s skin. All other tangible, important concerns were the  allegedly equal. The school buildings were maintained the same; the quality of the teachers was the same; the pay for the teachers was the same; the educational resources of supplies, equipment, and teaching materials were the same; the libraries were the same ; access to  and support of extracurricular activities(sports , music, the arts were the same. Or so the public and especially the Black community were duped into believing.

In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s the Boston Branch of the NAACP pulled together data that told a different story about the reality of separate but equal in the Boston public school system. They found blatant evidence of a lack of not just financial resources, but the lack of concern for the quality of the curriculum being used in the schools in the Black community. Initially the fight was to make sure that the Schools in the Black community received its fair share of tax dollars for the education of their children.