August 10th On this day in History

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A policeman charges into the water, Aug. 10, 1975 at Carson Beach in Boston, in pursuit of bathing demonstrators. White bathers notoriously threw rocks and bricks at black bathers. About 500 African-Americans were at the beach in predominantly white South Boston in a response to a request by black leaders who said they wanted to "reassert the rights of all Boston residents to use all public facilities".

Boston police officers use riot sticks to break up a group of black demonstrators during a civil rights demonstration, Aug. 10, 1975 at Carson Beach in the predominantly white South Boston. Police largely targeted the black demonstrators despite white protestors repeatedly throwing rocks, beer bottles and bricks.

That was during a the period of resistance often violent to court ordered busing for the purpose of desegregation in Boston. South Boston or Southie was a working class Irish Neighborhood.
Boston desegregation busing crisis
The emergence of busing as an emotional issue at the recent democratic debate must have been confusing to a lot of viewers under the age of 55. Although widely reported at the time this piece of Northeastern American history has been largely erased. When people think of violent resistance to desegregation they think of the south the KKK bombing a church full kids, lynching civil rights workers, attacking freedom riders, cops hosing down kids etc. Those images are still often shown. You rarely see these images


They don’t fit in with the us in the northeast cities are progressive, those rural racist dumb deplorable propaganda line.
Boston was far from the only place in the Northeast that resisted integration, the major difference is that in the northeast they were more successful at it.

I think it's disgraceful this happened as recently as 1975 that a black person was not allowed to go to the beach in what's supposed to be guardian of freedom and democracy??

Apparently the ocean was not ready for black people

self-appointed black patrols in the south are to this day harassing innocent black folk for swimming in public pools, picnicking in public parks, etc. racism just won't die in this country.

I understand high-schools in the south have racially seperate prom nights? quite bizzare

the racists just see that as common sense - that it is an undebatable given, a truism, that the races should be kept separate and unequal. the sins of the father are visited upon the sons to the third generation, so i am guessing perhaps by the year 2100 these racists will finally die out here.

Maybe 50 years ago. My high school in Georgia was not like that.

That's so stupid.

racists here are similar to what they were in south africa, they see it as mere common sense, that it is a given that the races should be segregated and unequal, the natural order of things.

Still nonsense to me.

your nation in general seems more sensible than mine.

It seems other highschools in Georgia still practice this in 2019
https://observer.com/2019/05/prom-integ ... l-happens/

I find it fascinating that white American parents organise these proms privately outside of the school grounds but the school is fully aware they are using the school banners and school name to sell tickets.

Almost like a secret code to maintain racial separateness....No wonder Trump was preaching to the converted...

it is a continuing mystery to me why so many people place such importance on such a trivial matter as race.

That question is one for the white folks to answer...they keep throwing the rhetorical red herring of reverse racism whenever these things are raised, it happens here in Australia too but nowhere as badly as what I am seeing in the US.

my guess is it is part of a perceived scarcity of resources, a Darwinian thing.

More like blood and sand....them and us....it's an old instinctive and in our nature to rally around "your kind"

What a lot of Aspies on WP don't realise is that's not really a quantum leap from racism to ableism. I see plenty of self-absorbed and casual ableism from posts aspies make which is why I have little confidence an autism community would ever work.

I was watching a George Clooney movie "The descendants" where Clooney's character uses the r-word his daughter's boyfriend made the comment "Hey why don't old people and ret*ds just walk in front of car and get on with it". The boyfriend character ended up being a hero in the movie.

Other parents I read have similar concerns over the normalisation of the r-word
https://medium.com/specialolympics/a-fa ... c86f387772

The normalisation of ableism in our society is for me the final frontier. First race then disability. Probably not in my lifetime though.