Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (BOLLI)

Redlining and Blockbusting of Jews and Blacks in Boston

Course Number

H&G3-5a-Wed1

Study Group Leader (SGL)

Lewis Finfer

Location

This course will take place virtually on Zoom. Participation requires a device (ideally a computer or tablet, rather than a cell phone) with a camera and microphone in good working order and basic familiarity with using Zoom and accessing email.

5-Week Course

March 12 - April 9

Description

2024 marked the 50th anniversary of Boston school desegregation and busing. This was a momentous set of events that bitterly divided the city for years and tarnished Boston’s reputation then and now. How did we get to that 1974 court decision and the beginning of busing? What did the Black community do to bring these issues to the all-white Boston School Committee 1960-1974 and have them reject all of them? This left them no alternative but to file a case in federal court, which they did. What was the reaction against busing by some of Boston’s white working-class and poor? What were the class issues at play here? How did this redlining and blockbusting by banks and realtors  in Dorchester-Mattapan victimize both the predominantly Jewish homeowners and the African American home buyers, and end up playing a significant role in the federal court decision on the desegregation of Boston’s schools?

There are lessons to be learned as the impact of this turbulent era is still being felt today in Boston and the surrounding suburbs.

Group Leadership Style

Roughly the same amount of lecture and discussion.

Course Materials

“The Busing Battleground”, WGBH American Experience documentary 2023, 90 minutes

A People’s History of the New Boston by Jim Vrabel, Chapters 5 pp.47-63 and Chapter 18 pp.169-187  

Before Busing: A History of Boston’s Long Black Freedom Struggle by Zebulon Miletsky, Chapter 6 and Epilogue, pp. 150-193

All Souls: A Family Story from Southie by Michael MacDonald, Chapter 1 pp.1-14, pp.90-91, Afterward, pp. 265-271

Articles and Explanations of events on the Dorchester-Mattapan redlining and blockbusting, by Lew Finfer

Preparation Time

Read 20-40 pages a week and watch one 90-minute documentary.

Biography

Lew Finfer has been a community organizer in Massachusetts with neighborhood, city-wide and state-wide organizations. He did neighborhood organizing in Dorchester and so knows the issues in the course first-hand. For decades, he has been the Director of Dorchester Community Action Council, Dorchester Fair Share, MA Tenants Organization, MA Affordable Housing Alliance, Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, and MA Communities Action Network.