Description: Audio goes in and out. Boston police cars and police officers stationed on the street outside of Hyde Park High School. School buses arrive escorted by police cruiser with flashing lights. Ambulance waiting in parking lot. African American students exit the school and board buses. White Hyde Park residents watch the action on the street. A white student tells the camera crew that a fight broke out in the school. Police and media are gathered outside of the school. Hyde Park environs, with snow covering the ground. Shot of the side of the Channel 2 news van.
0:00:17: Visual: Exterior of Hyde Park High School. Snow blankets the ground. A line of police cars rings the street in front of the school. Police officers and school officials stand on the front steps of the school. Police officers are stationed on the streets surrounding the school. An ambulance idles on the street in front of the school. 0:02:57: V: A police cruiser with lights flashing escorts a line of buses up Central street. The buses pull up beside the school. A group of African American students approach the buses. A police car pulls away from the scene. White Hyde Park residents observe the action on the street from the porch of a house on Central Street. Groups of police officers confer on the street outside of the school. African American students exit from a side entrance of the school and board the buses. Shot of Hyde Park residents on porch of house. More African American students head toward the buses. Members of the media observe the students as they board the buses. 0:08:08: V: Officials confer on the street outside of the school. Police and the media survey the scene. Shot of the exterior of the school. Two of the buses pull away from the school, escorted by a Boston police cruiser with flashing lights. The buses proceed up Metropolitan Avenue. 0:10:34: V: A white student leans against a car outside of the school. A crew member asks him what happened in the school. The student says that a fight broke out; that he does not know how it started. A police cruiser leaves the scene. Groups of white residents observe the action from street corners. More buses pull away from the school and continue up Metropolitan Avenue, accompanied by a police cruiser. A white teenager walks up the street, away from the school. 0:13:17: V: Police officers direct traffic away from the school. Shot of a police officer grasping baton behind his back. The remaining buses pull away from the school, accompanied by a police cruiser. Police officers and the media continue to stand in front of the school. The ambulance pulls away. A police officer talks to a group of white teenagers. The teenagers walk up Westminster Street, away from the school. Two white female teenagers talk to a group of three police officers in front of the school.
Collection: Ten O'Clock News
Date Created: 02/10/1977
Description: Press conference on the court-ordered plan for Phase III desegregation of the Boston Public Schools. Elvira "Pixie" Palladino (Boston School Committee), Charles Leftwich (Associate Superintendent, Boston Public Schools) and John Nucci (East Boston community activist) are among the interested parties and reporters in attendance. Attendees read over the court order. Robert Dentler (Dean of Education, Boston University) and Marvin Scott (Associate Dean of Education, Boston University) review the court order. They discuss efforts to desegregate Boston kindergartens. They announce the opening of the Mattahunt Elementary School and Madison Park High School. Smith and Dentler discuss the decision to close the McKinley School, the Storrow School and the Higginson Elementary School, because they remain segregated despite all efforts to integrate the student population.
0:00:13: Visual: People are seating themselves in a lecture hall before a press conference about the court-ordered plan for Phase III desegregation of Boston Public Schools. Elvira "Pixie" Palladino sits with several white women at a table at the front of the room. Walt Sanders (WBZ reporter) reads the paper at his seat, also near the front of the room. Charles Leftwich (Associate Superintendent, Boston Public Schools) greets people as they enter the room. The media set up cameras to record the press conference. 0:03:20: V: Marvin Scott (Associate Dean of Education, Boston University) and Robert Dentler (Dean of Education, Boston University) seat themselves at the front of the room. The moderator announces that copies of the court-ordered Phase III desegregation plan will be passed out. Audience members approach him for copies of the report. Scott and Dentler wait as the moderator passes out the report. 0:05:51: V: The moderator introduces Dentler and Scott, and says that they will answer questions about the report. Dentler and Scott are seated at a table with microphones. They quietly confer with one another and check their watches. The press conference attendees quietly read over the report. John Nucci (East Boston community activist) quietly studies it. Leftwich flips through the report. An attendee asks Dentler how the plan will affect East Boston. Dentler says that he will answer questions after the attendees have had a chance to read over the report. 0:09:49: V: Smith says that the court order for Phase III desegregation focuses on stability and continuity. He says that he and Dentler will review the order and then take questions. Smith says that a third theme of the court order is the disengagement of the court from the schools. Smith refers to the court order and explains some statistics. He points out how some school assignments have changed from last year to this year. He makes reference to the assignment of students to examination schools. Dentler notes that kindergarten classrooms in Boston have never been desegregated; that neighborhood kindergarten classrooms remain more accessible to white students than to African American students; that fewer minority students enter kindergarten. Dentler adds that the Phase III desegregation plan aims to increase accessibility to neighborhood kindergarten for all; that some students will be assigned to citywide magnet kindergartens for desegregation purposes; that magnet kindergarten assignments are made with the idea that children will stay in the same building for the elementary school grades. Dentler says that the goal of kindergarten desegregation was first stated in the original court order. Smith mentions some of the details of student assignments to District 9 schools. Dentler says that the court aims to stabilize the high student turnover rate. He names the deadlines for initial assignments and corrective assignments of students. Dentler notes the statistic that one in three students transfers from one school to another under the current plan; that there will be limitations on student transfers. Dentler says that a high turnover rate is detrimental to classroom learning. Smith announces the opening of the Mattahunt Elementary School and Madison Park High School. Dentler announces the closings of four schools. He says that the McKinley School, the Storrow School, and the Higginson Elementary School will be closed because they have remained segregated despite all efforts to integrate the student population. Dentler notes that alternative plans to desegregate these schools are infeasible or unconstitutional; that the student populations in these schools are small. Dentler notes that there are 60 students enrolled in the McKinley School; that there are less than 100 students enrolled in the Storrow School; that there are less than 150 students at the Higginson School, not including kindergarten students.
Collection: Ten O'Clock News
Date Created: 05/06/1977
Description: Exterior South Boston High, first day of school on staggered opening schedule. Police on steps. Tilt up facade. White students walk up to school. Jerome Wynegar out front. Boston Police bus pulls up. Wynegar comments on insufficient buses to bring black students from distant neighborhoods because of contract dispute and the disruption of the staggered opening schedule. Press photographers. Person on the street interview with white mother, Evelyn Gorhan, who waited with daughter for bus that never came. Black mother, Edna Calhoun from Roxbury says she will not send her son to school until buses are available. Calhoun and another black woman, Frankie MacDonald, report rocks and expletives hurled at them. Shots of the children. “Nigers suck” graffiti on brick housing project.
Collection: Ten O'Clock News
Date Created: 09/07/1977