All Souls: A Family Story From Southie

In an attempt to address the issue of the de facto segregation of South Boston’s public schools, the NAACP filed a lawsuit against the Boston School Committee in 1972 “for its ongoing refusal to comply with the state’s Racial Imbalance Act” of 1965 (“Desegregation Busing.” Encyclopedia of Boston, Boston Research Center). Judge Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr. ruled that the committee was engaging in unconstitutional efforts to maintain segregation, and he ordered the desegregation of Boston public schools via the solution of busing students from one area to another. This decision ignited deep rage among close-knit South Boston communities, where many criticized the ruling and insisted upon their right to allow their children to attend schools within their neighborhood. As MacDonald observes in his book, Southie echoed with cries of “Hell No We Won’t Go,” and incidents of racist violence rapidly escalated amid anti-busing protests. 

The population of South Boston was deeply divided on this issue; many were outraged by the prospect of being forced to bus their children to different schools, while others were equally horrified by the racist violence that erupted in their neighborhood over the ruling. Those who criticized Garrity’s decision contended that the busing initiative “would accomplish little other than interracial violence” and that “moving students from one failing school to another didn’t address the system’s larger failures” (“Desegregation Busing”). This particular point of conflict is intensely addressed in All Souls as MacDonald describes his firsthand experiences of the enmity that ensued as the lower-class communities of South Boston and Roxbury were essentially pitted against each other by these broader political decisions. As MacDonald observes:

National news crews descended on the neighborhood to focus only on the scenes of inexcusable racist violence, without examining any of the equally important class manipulation at play in a plan that would send rightfully aggrieved African American students into a school that, in spite of its predominant complexion, was as bad if not worse than the one they came from. In essence, liberal Garrity [and conservative politicians] were working very well together, for their own class interests that sacrificed South Boston and Roxbury families. (“Whitey Bulger, South Boston, and Southie’s Lost Generation.” Beacon Broadside: A Project of Beacon Press. 22 Oct. 2014.)

MacDonald maintains that the busing initiative focused entirely upon the very real impact of segregation in public schools but failed to account for the deeply complex economic issues involved, given that his local school of South Boston High was already contending with an array of problems that prevented it from meeting adequate educational standards. His own position on the issue is deeply rooted in his personal experiences of the outrage and violence that took place during this time frame, and while his longtime career as an activist gives him a more measured understanding of the complex dynamics in play, his memoirs contain visceral descriptions of the street-level violence that he and his siblings witnessed in their neighborhood, as well as discussions of the racist attitudes that often prevailed in his area.