Boston Desegregation

On Sept. 12, 1974, Boston Public Schools students faced an uphill battle. After years of protests and lawsuits, Judge William Arthur Garrity had found that the schools in Boston were unconstitutionally segregated. His ruling would have many repercussions throughout the city.

Before federal Judge W. Arthur Garrity’s school desegregation order in 1974 led to an explosion of white opposition in some Boston neighborhoods, Black leaders had spent about a decade trying just about everything they could to secure a better education for their community’s children.