Following the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, which declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional, in 1965 Massachusetts became the first state to legally prohibit racially imbalanced schools. On March 15, 1972, the class action suit Morgan v. Hennigan was filed against the Boston School Committee (BSC) on behalf of fifteen parents and forty-three children, alleging that Boston schools were segregated. Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. ruled against the city and for the parents on June 21, 1974, ordering the BSC to come up with a plan for implementing desegregation. When they failed to come up with an appropriate plan by the deadline in January 1975, the courts took a more active role. Garrity appointed advisors (called masters and experts) to formulate the desegregation plan, which he approved in April. On May 10, 1975 Garrity issued a comprehensive desegregation order that included provisions for citizen participation, monitoring, and reporting. The order created the Citywide Coordinating Council (CCC) as an independent, autonomous oversight body to monitor the implementation of desegregation in Boston Public Schools.

In addition to monitoring implementation on behalf of the court, the CCC was charged with fostering public awareness of the desegregation process; publicizing the Council’s recommendations to the public; developing collaborations between colleges, universities, cultural institutions, businesses, and the public schools; identifying and resolving problems through mediation; and bringing unresolved problems to the attention of the plaintiffs, defendants, and court. It was specifically not allowed to “co-manage or make policy for the Boston schools,” or to take on any of the School Committee’s responsibility for carrying out the court’s orders.

Initially, the CCC was composed of forty-two court-appointed volunteers, including black, white, Asian, and Hispanic members, parents from all parts of the city, and people from educational, business, labor, civic, religious, and community organizations, in addition to two members of the Citywide Parents Advisory Council and two students from Racial-Ethnic Student Councils. This number proved unwieldy and was gradually reduced. Arthur Gartland served as the CCC’s first chairman, followed by Robert Wood. The CCC was also provided with staff funded by the city, including an executive director, an assistant director, and necessary personnel. Father Michael Groden was the CCC’s first executive director, beginning work in July 1975; James P. Breeden joined as deputy director in June 1976 and later became executive director. Frank Harris, S.J., was the assistant staff director.

As the monitoring agent of the court, the CCC held public hearings, trained and coordinated school monitors, inspected school facilities and transportation, arranged school/university pairings, and monitored the desegregation of faculty and staff as well as of students. The Council also investigated bilingual education, occupational/vocational education, and special needs education to see if all students’ needs were being met. They submitted frequent reports to the court, and commissioned numerous reports and statistical analyses to assess the progress of integration. In its campaign to spread public awareness of implementation, the CCC distributed press releases and established an information center that responded to public inquiries and held a reference library open to the public.

Beginning in May 1977, the court began to plan its withdrawal and ordered the creation of a permanent Department of Implementation to carry out the desegregation plan. The Department of Implementation took over the CCC’s responsibility for coordinating monitors in September 1977. In July 1978, CCC Chairman Robert Woods stepped down to become Superintendent of Boston Public Schools. The CCC was formally disbanded on September 1, 1978.

Sources

Citywide Coordinating Council. Annual report, 1975-1976.

Citywide Coordinating Council. “CCC Chronology, 1975-1978,” in the Final report to the U.S. District Court, 1978. Desegregation-era Records Collection, Boston City Archives, http://www.cityofboston.gov/Images_Documents/Guide%20to%20the%20Desegregation-era%20Records%20collection_tcm3-23340.pdf (accessed August 30, 2012).

“Memorandum of decision of remedial orders,” Morgan v. Kerrigan, C.A. 72-911-G (June 5, 1975), 86-95.