Ruth Batson

The Boston School Committee voted unanimously on April 10 to rename a Dorchester public high school in honor of storied civil rights activist and Girls’ Latin School alumna Ruth Batson, who challenged school segregation and launched the iconic METCO program.

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.

Sometimes, all it takes is someone without any quit in them to get things done. Ruth Batson was one of those people.