South Boston High School

South Boston High School
Address
95 G Street
South Boston, The Commonwealth
United States
Coordinates 42°19′57″N 71°02′42″W / 42.33250°N 71.04500°W / 42.33250; -71.04500Coordinates: 42°19′57″N 71°02′42″W / 42.33250°N 71.04500°W / 42.33250; -71.04500
Information
Type Public
Opened September 1901[1]
School district Boston Public Schools

South Boston High School was a public high school. It was part of Boston Public Schools.

History

South Boston High School was built on Telegraph Hill in Dorchester Heights in 1901. It was the first high school in the South Boston neighborhood.[1][2]

During the Boston busing crisis in the 1970s, several racial incidents took place at the school.[3] On September 12, 1974, the first day of school, only 124 students attended. The school anticipated an enrollment of about 1,300.[4] On that day, hundreds of angry white residents (parents as well as kids) hurled rocks and bricks as buses arrived at the school, carrying black students from Roxbury. Although police in riot gear attempted to control the demonstrators, eight black students on buses were injured.[5]

On November 20, several fights broke out in the school. It began when a white male student let a door slam in the face of a black female student.[6] An even more violent incident occurred several weeks later on December 11, when Michael Faith was stabbed by another student.[6][7] News of his stabbing spread around the neighborhood like wildfire and by mid-afternoon, about 700 people had surrounded the school to confront the black students at the end of the school day.[7] Fortunately, the students were able to escape when the crowd chased after three decoy buses.

In 1975, the Boston School Committee was stripped of most of its control over Boston school integration. Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. said that desegregation was not working at South Boston High School and accused the school committee of thwarting his court order. The school was placed into receivership that year under the administration of a district superintendent.[8]

South Boston High School continued to receive negative attention for the violence that erupted there in 1974. In 1980, Michael Tierney and Danis Terris founded and launched Mosaic, a publication consisting of autobiographical stories, photographs and poetry from students at South Boston High School.[9][10] They created Mosaic in response to the desegregation of Boston public schools in the 1970s, and in particular, to the negative media attention South Boston High School and its students received during that time.

The students worked with professional writers and photographers, publishing powerful stories and photographs that capture the experience of growing up in Boston. Some stories show students’ experiences with desegregation, but others tell us so much more. Their stories touch upon issues such as divorce, death, foster care and immigrating to the United States. Students used Mosaic as a platform to show others that South Boston High School and its students were much more than what the media portrayed.

The school building, now renamed the South Boston Education Complex, houses Excel High School. [11][12][13]

It is located on 95 G St. South Boston, MA.

Notable alumni

References

  1. 1 2 Sullivan, Jim (2007). South Boston. Arcadia Publishing. p. 91. ISBN 9780738555287.
  2. ↑ Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell (2006). South Boston. Arcadia Publishing. p. 40. ISBN 9780738539485.
  3. ↑ O'Connor, Thomas H. (1994) [1988]. South Boston, My Home Town: The History of an Ethnic Neighborhood. Northeastern University Press. p. 220. ISBN 9781555531881.
  4. ↑ Malloy, Ione. Southie Won't Go: A Teacher's Diary of the Desegregation of South Boston High School. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986, 9.
  5. ↑ Gellerman, Bruce. "Busing Left Deep Scars On Boston, Its Students." WBUR. September 5, 2014. Accessed May 19, 2015. http://www.wbur.org/2014/09/05/boston-busing-effects.
  6. 1 2 Malloy, Ione. Southie Won't Go: A Teacher's Diary of the Desegregation of South Boston High School. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986.
  7. 1 2 Bassett, Edward W. "Boston Schools Close after Stabbing, Protests." The Bryan Times, December 12, 1974. Accessed May 19, 2015. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NMAwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-VEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1013,6329269.
  8. ↑ "South Boston High School Put into Receivership by Court." The Morning Record, December 10, 1975. Accessed May 19, 2015. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=lbZHAAAAIBAJ&sjid=V_8MAAAAIBAJ&pg=766,1709982.
  9. ↑ Mosaic, and "After School" Project. Coming of Age in Boston : Across the Generations. Boston, MA, 1984.
  10. ↑ "Mosaic : Records, 1980-1990." Joseph P. Healey Library, UMass Boston. http://www.lib.umb.edu/node/1626.
  11. ↑ "Excel High School home page". Retrieved 2014-02-15.
  12. ↑ "Monument High School home page". Retrieved 2014-02-15.
  13. ↑ "Boston Green Academy home page". Retrieved 2014-02-15.
  14. 1 2 "South Boston Education Complex (formerly South Boston High School)." Boston Public Schools. Accessed May 19, 2015. http://bostonpublicschools.org/Page/131.
  15. ↑ Marquard, Bryan (June 22, 2010). "John Ferruggio, at 84; hero of 1970 Pan Am hijacking". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2014-02-15.
  16. ↑ Rimer, Sara (May 7, 1993). "School in Boston Is Shut for Week After Race Fight". The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-02-15.
  17. ↑ Schoenberg, Shira (February 23, 2013). "U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch makes journey from iron worker to Democratic Senate candidate". The Republican. Retrieved 2014-02-15.
  18. ↑ Maguire, Ken (April 16, 2001). "Joe Moakley takes on a new battle: Leukemia". Spartanburg Herald-Journal. Associated Press. p. A4. Retrieved 2014-02-15.
  19. ↑ Lehr, Dick; O'Neill, Gerard (2000). "Buried by the Mob". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2014-02-15.
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