Letter from the Mayor

Who makes the decisions that affect students and families and how are they informed and influenced by the people who will be affected by those decisions?

Let us start by taking a step backwards and outwards. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education marked a turning point in the history of race relations in the United States. On May 17, 1954, the Court ended constitutional protections for segregation by race, and made equal opportunity in education the law of the land. Brown v. Board of Education reached the Supreme Court through the fearless efforts of lawyers, community activists, parents, and students. One of the most important figures was Thurgood Marshall, aka “Mr. Civil Rights” described in this intro from  the National Museum of American History.  After you read the introduction, watch this short movie about Thurgood Marshall.  

As we consider the events in Boston, who were the decision-makers and who influenced them? How were those decisions felt by the students and families of Boston? This week we will examine two ways of learning more: letters from the collected papers of various officials (primary sources) and 2 chapters of Common Ground (a secondary source). 

One way we know about history is to look at the papers saved by “important” people. Several of the most important figures in Boston in the 1970s kept their letters and they are archived in different collections. We will search through two archives to find letters written to the Mayor and other officials. Sometimes we don’t know if the people who received the letters in the archives ever wrote back but some of the archives above contain both the original letter and the reply. For your final product, you will choose one letter written to the Mayor or the Judge and write a reply demonstrating that you understand the perspective of the person writing the reply and the events of the time period. 

Once you have chosen a letter to respond to, you will also read selections of Common Ground, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Boston Busing Crisis. Each chapter focuses on individuals and families caught up in the crisis. When this book was written in 1985, the Busing Crisis was fairly recent. The author, J. Anthony Lukas, spent hundreds of hours interviewing members of three different Boston families: the McGoffs, the Twymons and the Divers. He also researched and interviewed the most important decision makers: the Chairwoman, the Judge, the Cardinal, the Editor and the Mayor. Together we will read the chapter titled “The Mayor” about Kevin White. Each of you will choose another chapter to read, about one family - whichever one most closely resembles the author of your letter. Please note: We will provide you with pdfs of the chapters along with chapter summaries once you have chosen your letter.

You will use what you learn from Common Ground and from the timelines to inform your letter. Please see the rubric to understand the expectations for this assignment.