Mon., 1/30/12: Boston Mayor Kevin White

Boston Mayor Kevin White
Kevin White, the four-term Mayor of Boston who led the city from 1968 to 1984, died Friday at the age of 82. He was known as a liberal reformer. Hailed as the hero who turned the hub into a contemporary metropolis. White will also be forever associated with an incident that has stained the city: the 1974 court order to desegregate schools. This watershed moment was followed by months of racial violence –dozens of people were injured, neighborhoods erupted with protesters hurling slurs, and stones, at buses full of black children. It was a turbulent tie time that marked Boston as a racist town.

This hour we look at how Mayor White managed these racial tensions, the challenges that he faced, and how the desegregation of schools affected his political career.

GUESTS:
  Kenneth Guscott, president of Boston's NAACP Branch, 1963-1968
  Bill Owens, former Massachusetts State Senator
  Ted Landsmark, president of the Boston Architectural College. Landsmark was attacked by anti-busing protestors in Boston City Hall Plaza in 1976.