I don't know much about Boston, but let's again be honest. The schools in Boston were not segregated the way schools in the South were. No black kids were denied admission to a school in his neighborhood because of his race. That is exactly what happened in most of Dixie. Those kids in Little Rock in the 50s lived a few blocks from the school but were denied admission because of their race. That did not happen in any northern city that I am aware of. Boston's neighborhoods like many northern cities, where highly ethnic and 'self-segregated'. The neighborhood schools reflected those housing patterns. The 'fights' in Boston were when a Federal judge decided to bus kids past their neighborhood school across town to enforce an artificial racial quota plan. It had nothing to do with unequal access to education. The same thing happened in most Northern cities even in cities like Pittsburgh where there was no such thing as an all-white or all black school. You went to the school in your district --- no exceptions!
Federal judges (LBJ and Carter appointees) suddenly decided that every school should reflect the racial percentages of the entire district and neighborhood schools were destroyed while millions were wasted on transportation that could have gone to education. What were once outstanding public schools for all children, black and white, have been turned into nothing but toys for Federal judges. But what got that ugly ball rolling was Southern governments passing laws that denied government services to people because of race. You can't wrap yourself in the constitution with one hand while defending southern governments who were violating the very spirit of that constitution with the other.
I suppose the Southies in Boston welcomed all those black children with open arms and hugs and kisses. Why must Yankee do-gooders always ride such lofty steeds?
Problem is this in a nutshell. You Yankees and all your wonderful altruism is so shallow and ignorant. Most of you guys know very little about race. You rarely have to confront the issue. Folks in the deep South deal with it daily and have since the cotton gin was invented. Unless you are black (can't remember) or live in the South Bronx or the like, you are simply breast beating swelling with all that virtue garbage that sort of goes back to X's comments about Yankee puritan stock.
My daughters (by my ex)live in Sudbury Mass. The only blacks they EVER see in person are when they go into Boston proper(Newberry st) to shop or the handful they see at their school who are bused in if they qualify grade-wise. In such a sterile environment like most Yankees live in race-wise, it's easy for them to make blanket judgment and think they know it all.
I lived in Manhattan for 6 years as my home base. The poor blacks there did not seem to me to have it any better than poor blacks down home and they were a lot more pissed off at whitey. Fix your own mess first and then buzz me.