Restore Our Alienated Rights

R.O.A.R. Pin
R.O.A.R. Pin

Restore Our Alienated Rights (ROAR) was an anti-desegregation busing organization formed in Boston, Massachusetts by Louise Day Hicks in about 1974.[1]

Founding

ROAR was originally organized by Louise Day Hicks as the "Save Boston Committee. [2] The committee was organized to oppose the Racial Imbalance Act and first met in February 1974. Thomas O' Connell, a father from the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston was appointed its first chair. On April 3, 1974, the committee organized a 20,000 person march from Boston City Hall Plaza to the State House. By June of 1974, the committee had changed its name to ROAR. [3]

Purpose

The group's purpose was to fight off U.S. Federal Judge W. Arthur Garrity's court order requiring the city of Boston to implement desegregation busing — an order intended to eliminate de facto racial segregation in its public schools. To supporters, ROAR's purpose was its namesake; i.e., to protect the "vanishing rights" of white citizens. To its many opponents, however, ROAR was a symbol of mass racism coalesced into a single organization. ROAR was composed primarily of women, and its leaders argued that "the issue of forced busing is a women's issue."[4]

Notable Members

See also

Further Reading

References

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