Archives and Special Collections

Archives, Historical Records, Special Collections

The Boston Phoenix: St. Patrick’s Day, Busing, and a Divided City

The following is a series written by archivists, academics, activists, and educators making available primary source material, providing pedagogical support, and furthering the understanding of Boston Public School’s Desegregation history. View all posts For many, St. Patrick’s Day is undoubtedly one of the most important dates in the Boston calendar, highlighted by the annual South Boston parade. But in 1974, St. Patrick’s Day occurred at the beginning of the Boston busing crisis, a controversial solution to court-ordered citywide school desegregation. From 1971-1976, The Boston Phoenix covered the crisis with over 70 in depth articles. On March 26, Phoenix journalist Michael Ryan penned “Where was everybody on St. Patrick’s Day?” addressing the conspicuous absence of politicians at parties and the parade.   19740326_hi   At the center was State Senator William “Billy” Bulger’s, brother of mob boss Whitey Bulger, cancellation of the traditional St. Patrick’s Day party at Dorgan’s restaurant in South Boston. Bulger canceled “to draw attention to his contention that South Boston would be irreparably damaged as a neighborhood, its cohesion destroyed and its spirit shattered, if the forced busing plan for school integration were to go into effect as scheduled for September.” Instead, he held an open house after the parade which was only attended by one political figure, Father Sean McManus. In response, State Representative Royal Bolling held his own party, “Roxbury’s Salute to St. Patrick’s Day.” Bolling, unlike Bulger, was a supporter of the court-ordered desegregation as author of the Racial Imbalance Act of 1965. He also secured funding for METCO (Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity) which assisted with school desegregation. However, his party also garnered very little attendance from politicians. Were the politicians at the South Boston parade, which normally drew 200,000 spectators annually in the 1970s? Yes, and no. Billy Bulger attended before his party. Mayor Kevin White, who in 1967 ran a tough campaign against anti-desegregation Boston School Committee member Louise Day Hicks, decided at the last minute to attend the parade. More importantly, Hicks—by then a Boston City Council member—and fellow member Albert Leo “Dapper” O’Neil, both ardently anti-busing, were in attendance and received cheers from the crowd. The busing crisis clearly had divided the city. The Phoenix’s Ryan concluded that “the political leadership of the state, so conspicuous on the busing issue, had done it again.” The Boston Phoenix Collection and METCO records can be viewed at Northeastern University’s Archives and Special Collections. In addition, Northeastern University’s Archives and Special Collections is coordinating a multi-archive scanning project whose goal is to make available archival material that relates to how and why busing happened in Boston, as well as the after effects it had on the community. The project announcement is available on Snell Snippets.

Happy 50th to the Boston Phoenix!

March 2, 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Boston Phoenix! In 1965, the paper began as “Boston After Dark,” a four-page insert in the Harvard Business School’s newspaper The Harbus News. On March 2, 1966, Boston After Dark became a free, independent newspaper – “Boston’s only complete entertainment weekly.”   The paper featured event, music, theatre, and film listings and reviews. Theatre reviews were penned by Larry Stark, a prominent local journalist who later was nicknamed “Boston’s dean of theatre critics.” The first issue features a review of “The Subject Was Roses” at the Wilbur Theatre in which he writes about its long run as “perhaps the cast is a little tired by now, but the script was a little tired to start with.” BAD 19660302_1 In 1972, Boston After Dark acquired the Cambridge Phoenix and was reborn the Boston Phoenix. It became an invaluable source of reporting on not just Boston’s arts and culture but major local subjects—from school desegregation to LGBTQ issues to Occupy Boston. Over its 47 year run, the paper received multiple awards in journalism from the New England Press Association, the Penny-Missouri Newspaper Awards, and the American Bar Association Gavel Awards. The Boston Phoenix Collection can be viewed at Northeastern University’s Archives and Special Collections. The first issue can be viewed or downloaded in Northeastern University’s Digital Repository Service.

Spring 2016 Neighborhood Matters film and lecture series

Spring 2016 Neighborhood Matters Film and lecture series announced! Neighborhood Matters is a lunchtime series that celebrates the ways in which community groups have shaped the neighborhoods surrounding the Northeastern campus. This series is co-curated by the Northeastern Center for the Arts and the Archives and Special Collections at the Northeastern University Library.


Redlining: stories from the The Boston TV News Digital Library: 1960-2000

Tue, Mar 22, 2016 12:00 pm Snell Library 90
Free & Open to the Public.  Lunch served.
In the United States, redlining is the practice of denying services, either directly or through selectively raising prices, to residents of certain areas based on the racial or ethnic makeups of those areas. The term “redlining” was coined in the late 1960s by John McKnight, a sociologist and community activist. It refers to the practice of marking a red line on a map to delineate the area where banks would not invest. As a consequence of redlining, neighborhoods that banks deemed unfit for investment were left underdeveloped or in disrepair. Join us for a conversation about the history of redlining in Boston, and the community organizing that forced Democratic candidate Michael S. Dukakis to order statewide disclosure of mortgage-lending patterns by zip code, which revealed suspected the discrimination in Boston and lead to the passage in 1977 of the Community Reinvestment Act.
 
Special Guest: Mossik Hacobian
 
For 33 years Mossik Hacobian worked at Urban Edge and he now is Executive Director of Higher Ground Boston. Mr. Hacobian recognized leader in building and maintaining affordable housing in Boston.

 
La Defensa De La Tierra and Villa Victoria (film)
Wed, Apr 06, 2016 12:00 pm Snell Library 90
Free & Open to the Public.  Lunch Served.
In 1968, the city of Boston introduced an urban renewal initiative tht would diplace residents to create new urban spaces. La Defensa De La Tierra and Villa Victoria tells the history of Parcel 19, a plot in the South End. Gathering by the hundreds, Puerto Rican residents protested and won, creating an affordable housing community and social organization for residents. Special Guest: Jovita Fontanez Long time South End activist Jovita Fontanez helped found the South End Community Health Center and was the first Latina elected to the Electoral College of Massachusetts

A History of Boston in 50 Artifacts

Tue, Apr 19, 2016 12:00 pm Snell Library 90 Free & Open to the Public.  Lunch Served
One of the largest civic engineering projects in Boston’s history, the Big Dig uncovered gems illuminating the city’s archeological history. From cannon balls to chinaware, A History of Boston in 50 Artifacts places each artifact found at the site in geographical and historical context, offering a new and enriching look at Boston. Special Guest: Joe Bagley Author and City Archeologist As the City of Boston’s Archeologist since 2011, Joe Bagley is responsible for the below-ground cultural resources in the city.  He is also the Author of “A History of Boston in 50 Artifacts”

Spotlight: Two Newspapers, Two Exposés

The 2015 film Spotlight recently won the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Picture and earned six Oscar nominations. The film follows the Boston Globe’s investigation and reporting of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal under Cardinal Bernard Law. The coverage began on January 6, 2002 and is widely credited with helping to uncover the depth of the scandal throughout the U.S. The Globe was awarded a Pulitzer for their reporting on the subject in 2003. But did you know that the story first broke in the Boston Phoenix almost a year earlier? Northeastern University’s Archives and Special Collections is the new home of the Boston Phoenix Collection, which contains over 30 articles and editorials covering the scandal. In particular, the collection includes Kristen Lombardi’s ground-breaking article “Cardinal Sin,” the evocative cover story of the March 23, 2001 issue. CardinalBlogedited1   Lombardi’s “Cardinal Sin” investigated the 25-plaintiff civil lawsuit against Father John Geoghan of the Boston Archdiocese, which additionally named Cardinal Bernard Law, Boston’s archbishop, as a defendant. The article uncovered Geoghan’s history of sexual abuse, his failed treatments, and his numerous reassignments by the Church in an attempt to hide the truth. In addition—through interviews with victims and an insightful evaluation of past abuse cases—Lombardi illustrated that the Church preferred to settle out of court and reassign those accused, offering no real solutions or justice. The Phoenix and Lombardi continued coverage of Cardinal Law and the sex abuse scandal through 2003. A bibliography and links to the articles are located in the Boston Phoenix Collection website archives. In publication from 1965 to 2013, the Phoenix remains an invaluable source of reporting on major Boston subjects—from school desegregation to LGBTQ issues to Occupy Boston—shining a light on the most controversial of topics. The paper has received multiple awards in journalism from the New England Press Association, the Penny-Missouri Newspaper Awards, and the American Bar Association Gavel Awards.

There’s a Starman Waiting in the Archives: David Bowie dies at age 69

When news of David Bowie’s untimely death went public on the morning of January 11, 2016, artists ranging from Madonna to Iggy Pop to Guillermo del Toro made statements of sadness and disbelief concerning the passing of Major Tom. Sleater-Kinney guitarist and Portlandia actress Carrie Brownstein encapsulated it best when she tweeted: “It feels like we lost something elemental, as if an entire color is gone.” The Boston Phoenix Collection in Northeastern University’s Archives and Special Collections contains reviews, photographs, and articles documenting David Bowie’s artistry, ranging from his music and film careers to his political prowess, even his opinion on Todd Haynes’ controversial Bowie-inspired film, Velvet Goldmine.
BowieBlogScanedited-1

“Bowie’s Martian Spiders Spin New World” in a 1972 issue of  The Boston Phoenix

  The Boston Phoenix won numerous awards for journalism in its lifetime, including in 1994 when classical music writer Lloyd Schwartz was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Ben Gerson’s  1972 article “Bowie’s Martian Spiders Spin New World” highlights the in-depth nature of the alternative newspaper’s music journalism. Showcasing the sexual, political, and artistic nature of Bowie’s music and showmanship, Gerson’s artistic profile of Bowie is beyond music reporting—it is an academic dissection of Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust” tour. Referenced in Elizabeth Thompson and David Gutman’s The Bowie Companion, Gerson calls Bowie’s body a “laboratory, free of morphological determinants,” analyzing Bowie’s lyrics, performance, costumes, and philosophies. From a query as to why Bowie would want to perform on the A&E channel’s Live by Request in 2002, to a celebration of “the best record ever made about apocalypse, interplanetary lust, singer-songwriter role playing, and rock-and-roll-as-alien-outsider stuff,” The Boston Phoenix Collection offers insight into the reception of Bowie’s ever-changing identities. An elusive and iconic figure, Bowie is frequently cited as an inspiration not only by newer artists, like Lady Gaga, but also by contemporaries, like Mick Jagger. To explore the coverage of mainstream and underground pioneers in the music industry visit the Archives in Snell Library.