HOUSING POLICIES AND STRUGGLES FOR INEQUALITY

1960’s MOVEMENT TOWARDS HOUSING EQUALITY IN BOSTON AND ITS SUBURBS 

BY J.B.

The 1960s was a time of much social unrest in the state of Massachusetts. Many social equality movements made their way through the Bay State, such as the Civil Rights Movement, LGBT Movement, all followed by the Women’s Liberation Movement towards the end of the decade. Fair housing communities began to emerge in the late 1950s early 1960s in the wealthier suburbs of Boston that lined route 128. Upwards of 2000 bay state residents had joined a grass roots campaign to advocate against racial discrimination in housing policies. The Boston network which eventually would include “thirty-five hundred members and thirty-seven chapters, became the largest and most active example of a national phenomenon” (Geismer 545). During a time, where many other cities, of the same magnitude or larger, were witnessing the phenomena of white flight, Boston suburbs were welcoming in minorities, and advocating for racial tolerance and equality. For example, Hazelton, Pennsylvania enacted an ordinance to prevent Mexican Americans and other minorities from renting apartments by fining landlords who did not check their immigration papers. However, Boston was doing exactly the opposite welcoming diversity into their neighborhoods and suburbs with open arms (Bender Chp 6). Historians observed how whites typically opposed fair housing legislation rather than advocate for integrated suburbs. Suburban towns such as Belmont, Brookline, Concord, Newton, Lexington, and Wellesley strived to raise tolerance for residential assimilation and help individual African American families find homes within these communities (Geismer 455). Organizations such as the Massachusetts Federation of Fair Housing Committee, formed in the mid 1960s and its goals and ideals were spread through other major metropolises such as New York, New Jersey, and Chicago to Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Boston’s South End neighborhood began an urban renewal project during the 1960s as well, which would “clean up” this historically poor and decrepit neighborhood. The neighborhood today still holds the same character it did when it was first built. Currently, the South End neighborhood is listed as National Historic District, for its streets lined with charming brownstone, small squares, quaint parks and tree-lined boulevards. It has also been awarded the title of the largest preserved Victorian neighborhood in the United States. The expansion of the Back Bay neighborhood in the 1860s pulled many of the wealthier families that had first occupied the area out of the South End, leaving behind only working class families. In the 1930s, the Great Depression had hit Boston and its surrounding neighborhoods hard. Many of the textile mills that had once been the heart of the bay state economy, had moved south along with work, leaving many Bostonians without a job, and causing the neighborhood to fall into a downward spiral for decades to come. Following the construction of the prudential center, young white collar couples moved into the area. Unhappy with the negative connotations of the neighborhood and the current state of decay, they formed neighborhood associations to assist in the politician lead clean up of the area.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority saw it as “equally important was the emphasis on community participation in its design, development, maintenance, and re-design. The shift from a top-down, bureaucratic approach to creating urban open space, to one based on experience, observation, and analysis of the neighborhoods and communities for which they were intended, was seen as desirable not only because it would simply provide badly-needed open space, but also because it would improve its quality and sustainability” (Meehan 20). However, many of these associations were comprised of primarily white middle class residents, and were seen as the gentrifiers of South End.  Many minorities feared the negative effects of displacement, which led city officials to legislate policies to keep the poor in the neighborhood by establishing publicly, funded housing projects (McDonald 175). The Boston Redevelopment Association, along with neighborhood associations, and the Massachusetts Federation of Fair Housing Committee understood the importance of promoting racial equality in housing policies. During the early 1960s Boston laid claim to the most expansive fair rights laws in the nation. Boston and its surrounding neighborhoods would be the front-runner in the nationwide movement towards housing equality. These suburban residents lead a movement that would later transform ideas and laws about racial equality. This would have long lasting influence on local, state, and national policy and politics.

Works Cited

Bender, Steven. Tierra Y Libertad: Land, Liberty, and Latino Housing. New York, NY: New York UP, 2010. Print.

Geismer, Lily. "Good Neighbors for Fair Housing: Suburban Liberalism and Racial Inequality in Metropolitan Boston." Journal of Urban History 39.3 (2012): 454-77. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.

Mcdonald, Scott C. "Does Gentrification Affect Crime Rates?" Crime and Justice 8 (1986): 163-201. JSTOR. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.

Meehan, Angela Elizabeth. Community in the Garden in the Community: The Development of an Open Space Resource in Boston's South End. Thesis. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, 2007. MIT Libraries. Web. 02 Apr. 2016.