The Evening Compass; 12/12/1974

If you're one of our viewers has just finished watching women and we want to have you think about the other programs Channel 2 brings into your home for you and your family. Wellman Washington Week in Review Masterpiece Theater evening at Symphony feeling good for your children Sesame Street Electric Company zoom so many more if they mean something to you and your family then show channel 2 you care right now with a phone call to your 9 2 1 1 1 1. What was that number. That one record or two one one one one when I win a 1 1. 1 1 and you and Fred are both going to get one of the volunteers tonight from Prudential in Cheyenne but I'd like to make a donation to WGBH please. You do Fred. Yeah hi I just watched this groovy show on Channel 2. I'd like to be able to. Yeah a 15 Well now a $20 $20 a day gave me a lot of good things this year zoom was pretty good and I really enjoyed the symphony that was pretty good. So I called for a 9 2 1 1 1 1 and I'd like to donate to pledge night you know $20 for it can we add your name to the thirty thousand

three hundred eighty. I'm definitely a new donor. Definitely a new down it OK well that we can raise that to thirty thousand three hundred eighty seven right now because that's how many contributors have given us in September which is a start of our year for this year you should get the first three what you want is. Come on join them become one of thirty thousand three hundred and ninety eight continued to be gentle to you right now and keep everything coming to you and your family all year long. 12 months this is really exciting. It is I know Fred and you're really helping me out here a lot. We're giving you a present that you can watch all year. There is are you going to give yourself and I'm Fred on this is a selfish act or generous you know I'm giving 20 dollars of my money to get this is the families act I've ever done. Come on join Fred right now with a phone call have more 9 2 1 1 1 1. What are some of the other reasons for them to be afraid. Well I look at my card. Now there's a lot of good reason why jealousy is important. It's important to me because I work here.

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to join them in their effort to keep us going. Right now there are so many but really because of all the benefit you get from Channel 2 months of terrific programming to watch for everyone in your family so whatever it is that you enjoy whether it's a symphony or evening at Pops or. So many other shows on how to keep your house whatever it is whatever the reason for giving to Channel 2 Given do it right now so many people do this for months and I keep putting it up. Thanks for reminding me. Basically what we're doing now is the time to do it. Please don't put it off any longer. Give yourself a present during this holiday season that you can

enjoy the year. Do you know I don't know what do they get here. Get everyone to your home program to keep you informed on what's happening. If you can afford it. If you can afford it you get your choice your choice. One of the great new record for me and for your kids program starting on January 13 part series or the recipe for those two records from Jones come from the shadows and down one two and three. But you know for 30 want to call again can I do it.

Raise it to 30 I think I heard. I mean everybody. I think everybody really had to do it right now. Good evening I'm Ed Baumeister. First tonight from Louis Lyons the top of the news then for the rest of the broadcast an examination of the situation in Boston schools from Judy story. And Greg Pilkington a reconstruction of what happened in the violence yesterday from Peggy Morel the reaction of the black community to yesterday's events from Pam Bullard. A look at changes in the school situation since day one of desegregation. From Judy story are a look at the effects of yesterday's events on other schools in Boston from Pambo learned a story on the legal ramifications of what has happened both short and long term. And for me a story on where the top political leadership is in all this.

From Boston the evening compass your guy through the news. Nelson Rockefeller's approval by the House Judiciary Committee by twenty six to 12 indicates the final act of his election by the House next Thursday. Chairman or Dino and eight other Democrats joined all 17 Republicans for Rockefeller So there was no Goldwater influence in the committee. It had gone deeper into Rockefeller gifts to public officials in the Senate committee and dug up some law and had a wider range of criticism. Both houses of Congress by overwhelming vote. Three hundred seventy forty two and seventy nine to 13 voted new billions for public jobs run employed the Senate bill to fund a half a million unemployed. These veto proof measures are aimed at passage in this dying session the president in session with the heads of the auto industry reported he has indicated his willingness for a tax cut with the nearly car sales he said to be no gasoline tax increase.

The rate of inflation measured by wholesale prices leveled off last month a half the rise of the month before the reduction to one and a half percent rise was mostly in industrial prices farm and food prices kept their rise. The builder controlled strip mining to save the land won surprisingly prompt approval by the rules committee for a final vote next week. But the Rules Committee killed the chance of a vote in the section on the tax cuts and end of the oil depletion allowance that Ways and Means Committee had worked on six months rules reporter who felt the bill would die in the Senate anyway. It was apparently killed jointly by oil state members and liberals who anticipate a monster a bill in the new Congress. Senate sources say that Attorney General Saxby is to be appointed ambassador to India where Pat Moynihan is now. And the pressure of the University of Chicago levy to be attorney general Levy is a specialist in anti-trust. Sadly of course it proved especially in putting his foot in his mouth. The British government deported a record

trade deficit of one and a quarter billion for last month partly due to oil prices. The pound dropped again to a new low. Britain's currency is out of the ball this week when Saudi Arabia refused to accept any more Still the oil. In Brussels Kissinger warned Western foreign ministers that disaster faces their economic system unless answers can be found. The so far insoluble doubled prices of inflation and recession. President Ford and French president just tangle be wrestling with these problems on my nick this weekend. The French are skeptical of Kissinger's notions to cope with oil prices. Burma's capital Rangoon under Martial Law is still torn up by students fighting troops burning down government buildings carrying a torch for the late time and again the repressive government. Georgia's lively progressive Governor Jimmy Carter threw his hat into the ring as a Democratic presidential candidate today. He talked tough about ending secrecy in government and ending cozy relations between government officials and the industries they regulate.

The violence in front of South Boston High School yesterday by no means totally disrupted Boston school system. But the episode seems sure to have some long range meaning for the federally ordered desegregation of Boston's schools. The incident took place five days before the Boston School Committee as to file in court a more far reaching desegregation plan than the one which now brings black students to South Boston. We have several reports tonight on the school situation. We begin with a reconstruction of what happened yesterday. Here is to destroy it. Tensions had been building for almost a week in South Boston before they expire before they finally exploded into violence yesterday. It began with a fight in the Machine Shop on Monday when a scuffle in the girl's restroom on Tuesday. Wednesday there were fights in the cafeteria and in the library. By week's end. Aides tell me the storm warnings were out and it was clear that serious trouble could erupt at Southwestern high school. Those predictions proved right of

course when shortly after school opened yesterday a white student was knifed in a black student charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. The word spread quickly in Southie first white students left the high school by 11 o'clock yesterday morning. A crowd of a few dozen at the high school swelled to a few hundred. By noon it was several hundred men took off early from work to come there some longshoremen left their picket lines and walked up to the high school. Small contingents from East Boston and Charles Town heard the news and rushed over to Southie South Boston. Mothers and their boycotting youngsters the stalwarts of the anti busing office addition manned their usual positions outside the high school. By 1:00 o'clock the milling crowd numbered fifteen hundred. And as the crowd grew so did its anger. They were waiting for the school buses to arrive to pick up the black students remaining inside. And many vowed those buses would not leave South Boston unscarred. Even councillor Louise day Hicks the spearhead of the anti busing movement could not quell the

crowds fury. Every let me write me thank you. Thank you very much. The. As the end of the school day approached the crowd's anger spread to include not only the black students inside the school but the policeman outside as well. The tactical Patrol Force had returned to Southie along with the state police and the MDC and they seem badly outnumbered. Mounted Police rode into the crowd in an effort to split it but they were met by bricks bottles eggs and verbal abuse. Missiles flew from the sidewalks the back of the crowd and from the rooftops. There were a few fights a few

arrests but for the most part the demonstrators held their ground. A shout went up from part of the crowd on G Street and the sounds of breaking glass. In an instant three yellow school buses crested the hill and pulled up in front of the school. The windows were smashed and splintered the floors littered with glass. Drivers huddled over their steering wheels or on the floor. The full fury of the crowd now seemed directed at the three buses. Then they pulled out empty. A frustrated mob stood staring at the departing buses buses realising too late that these buses were decoys. The black students had been let out a side door and sprinted down two flights of steps to buses waiting behind the school. Before the south Boston demonstrators realized what had happened. The buses had arrived safely at the base item all the students may have arrived at the bayside mall safely but it was not calmly. The tension had been building among mothers and friends of the students who had been trapped for hours inside South Boston High. When the buses arrive and almost hysterical mood Vale.

And I love to. Let it. Go. We don't. Like it don't ask. Don't get come all. The babies come over I want to. Get All right. Come on. You know. You. Got me thinking the kid is going. To get it to make you. Do it. You know what and I don't. On the Buses the students their families and friends were gone in a matter of minutes. They were obviously angry but the people I talked to yesterday as well as a couple of other parents and students this morning had a clear focus for their anger was not directed toward

the people of South Boston. There seemed to be a general tendency to dismiss them as beyond hope. Yeah anger was directed toward the city. The police and the school committee they asked questions like Why was the crowd allowed to swell to over a thousand outside the high school and trap black students inside. They seem to be saying that the people of South Boston aren't going to go along with the segregation and can't be expected to police themselves. Enforcement is the job of the city they seem to be saying and the city has let them down. Thomas Adkins president of the Boston NAACP said at a press conference today that his talks with black students and parents reveal that they are determined to continue attending school but have expressed grave concern over the issue of safety. As a result Adkins said that NAACP attorneys filed today for a hearing tomorrow morning in federal court that will report on in a few minutes. We are committed to having Boston schools open and functional Akon said. But if that cannot be done

safely we are asking that the schools be closed down not only to black students but to all students and that all students be reassigned to de segregated facilities throughout the city. Adkins said he considered this a repugnant alternative but that if necessary. NAACP lawyers would ask the court to order the city to prepare a plan to this effect. State Representative Mel King. Echoed Atkins feeling that black students involved in the desegregation battle are geared up to stick it out. Ken was one of several black leaders who met with black South Boston High School students after their arrival back in Roxbury following yesterday's disturbances. The students he said discuss their feelings about returning to Southie. The kids decided they aren't going to let those people keep them from getting an education King said adding If the schools are open they will go to the schools. Both King and

Adkins strongly deplored yesterday's disruption in South Boston placing blame on white leadership and underscoring the feeling that if black students can't be educated safely then the system should be halted until it can. I think it was the most bizarre and diabolical set of circumstances I've ever seen said King. It was immoral and beastly. I stayed basically because of their animal behavior and immoral because the leaders there made no attempt to stop what was happening. King added angrily from now on if black kids can't go to school then no kids can go to school. Both Adkins and King allege that whites in South Boston purposely instigated the violence that erupted Wednesday. Atkins at his press conference specifically charged the powerful South Boston home and school association with holding a racist rally inside South Boston High School encouraging scuffles between black and white students

urging white students to boycott classes and other activities of the South Boston Home School Association. Contacted this evening claims the rally was in assembly called for by students. When asked why there were only whites at the rally Ms she he said it's not unusual for black students to meet in an Afro-American society just for blacks. So why is a whites only meeting so extraordinary on encouraging students to boycott MS Sheehy said. We don't tell them what to do. They make their own decisions. She said the charge of encouraging scuffles was absolutely false. State Senator elect William Allen's said he felt Boston schools should be closed down until a peaceful solution to the desegregation controversy is found. However Owens who is also chairman of the Emergency

Committee Against Racism in education the organizing group for the march against racism scheduled for downtown Boston on Saturday said that the march will go on as planned and that he had no worries about interference. Some people feel that the outburst in front of South Boston High shows that the desegregation order of Boston is under can't work. I was of course as we just heard feel quite the opposite. Nonetheless probably everybody agrees that the desegregation situation has changed since day one in September. Here for more is Pam Bullard. Everyone expected the worst in South Boston on day one. September 12th with the national television in the foreign press on hand. It did seem as if the eyes of the world were on South Boston. Several hundred people were gathered in front of the high school waiting for the buses carrying the black students. There was the chanting anger some racial epithets minor confrontations with police. The police

however were not hard on the crowd. When the buses arrive the black students ran into the school under a hail of verbal abuse. But then all quieted down. The people said they just didn't believe that was happening here. Black students coming into South Boston filling seats that heretofore were filled by white students. And the violence of course came in the afternoon when the buses were stone and black children injured. Since then there have been motorcycle escorts for the buses and police inside and outside schools. There has been violence but in the last month at least on the surface it appeared quiet white and black were in the school together. But the crime was deceiving. Yesterday when you walked into South Boston you came upon a crowd gripped by new levels of anger frustration and hatred. No longer were racial chants veiled or yelled by just a few. Almost everybody in the crowd screamed that blacks were niggers are boneheads. Many of the shouts and chants from the white crowd cannot be repeated on

television. Perhaps the most significant factor was the boldness of the crowd. Young people walked around openly calling black cops and niggers even when they stood a few feet from the black officers. They tried to grab cameras from the press and shouted obscenities at the press. They jumped up and down on police cars spit at police officers. The attitude seemed to be that where a white kid had allegedly been stabbed by a black kid any retaliatory action was justified. Every time a bottle or a can was thrown hitting a police officer there what she is and no longer was the crowd predominately mothers and students there were many fathers and older south Bostonians. There seemed to be no voice of moderation with the crowd yesterday. They cried for revenge and they wanted the black students out of South Boston for good. As one police officer put it I hate to think what would have happened to those black kids if this crowd had gotten their hands on them. What happened to solve Boston high school seems to have had an effect on other high schools in

the city. But in covering the other high schools today reporter Judy story learned that there were differences between South Boston and other schools. Here now is her report on the other schools. The smart money said that if there were to be any spinoff from yesterday's violence in South Boston it would probably be at Hyde Park High School the scene of some fights and walkouts in the past. So early this morning the press and police were on hand to watch the school day open in Hyde Park. The tactical patrol force lined the streets leading up to the school. But as it turned out they were seldom needed. Several buses of black children do drew up to the school and the students entered peacefully. Then a little later the white students arrived again peacefully. But the word began to spread among the white students that after the first period there would be a walkout by whites. And indeed after the first period about 100 white students did leave the school. But another 400 white students stayed in class. Police move the white students away from the building and several

groups made a few unsuccessful efforts to get back in. There were a few fights with police and two arrests but no reported injuries. Although the walkout in Hyde Park was inspired by yesterday's events in South Boston the mood of the Hyde Park people seemed significantly different than yesterday's angry crowd in Southie. I saw several black students walk to school for example something no black student would do in South Boston these days and all those students were upset about the stabbing of a white South Boston student. That wasn't the sole reason for today's walkout. I said to one girl why are you walking out. She said Because you're protesting. I said What are you protesting. She turned to her friend and asked What are we protesting. After her a discussion they told me it would be fun to have the day off. Other students said they wanted to show solidarity with white students in Southie but most of the trappings of the South Boston anti busing protests were absent in Hyde Park today. Black and white students did not trade racial slurs at least out loud on their way into school. There were no anti black

posters or buttons inside only mothers on hand were those taking their children to school and many of those mothers said they were appalled at the violence in South Boston. They weren't convinced that busing was a very good idea they said but they didn't want a police confrontation here. So you are the South Boston violence did seem to have some effect. Attendance in public schools was down. Sixty eight point one percent today from 75 percent yesterday there were walkouts by white students in four Boston high schools. But these involve less than 600 students all together and all four high schools all white students who stayed in school outnumbered those who walked out. But the situation could still go either way of course continued racial violence in South Boston is expected to escalate tensions in other schools mainly in Boston high schools and should Southey come down again. Attendance is likely to shoot up again throughout the school system. As I said at the outset this new situation in the Boston schools comes about near an

important court day next Monday when the final desegregation plan has to be filed. And as we and as we've learned the end of a way Sepi want some short term action from the federal court. Jim Bullard has a story now on the legal ramifications of what's happened. Yesterday's violence has spurned a call for further action by the attorneys for the black parents in the federal desegregation case. A special hearing before Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. is scheduled for tomorrow morning. The hearing called by the plaintiffs is considered extraordinary. The plight of black parents will request the following things. State troopers and National Guardsmen on the streets of South Boston and inside South Boston High School. A ban on all unauthorized persons inside schools specifically members of the Boston home and school association. A ban on all gatherings of five or more people in South Boston and a specific declaration against the use of racial epithets. What Judge Garrity will rule on these requests is of course not known

but the plate of black parents according to their attorneys are not about to back down. When I asked attorney Eric van Loon if he might consider vacating South Boston from the desegregation his response was quote absolutely not. If we have to put soldiers shoulder to shoulder in South Boston we will the law will be obeyed. While many will be watching what happens in the federal courthouse tomorrow morning what happens in the Boston School Committee chambers in the afternoon is also significant that the committee will no doubt talk about the South Boston problems. But more important is what they will do about for the desegregation as they say the show must go on and the committee is under a court order to file a second phase desegregation plan this Monday. That plan is being put together at the educational planning center and at the heart of it is an opinion survey that will soon be made of parents asking them what types of educational approaches they prefer for their child's traditional or flexible the basis of the new desegregation plan

that will involve all sections of the city is a choice of educational approaches but not schools. The location of schools John Coakley of the educational planning center has worked on the plan and offers this explanation. Program preference approach where developing most particularly at the elementary level and also at the middle school level less so at the high school level is designed to give parents some choice of programs within Geographic zones of the city is not designed to give parents a choice of school. Here it's with the ostomy. The program of preference. And then we would translate that program preference into a school assignment. The school assignment would be one such that the school was desegregated What do you do if say the majority of the parents opt for a traditional approach. If the majority of the parents as a matter of fact we anticipate

the majority of the parents opting for the traditional approach what we're hoping is that not the vast majority opt that way. If they do if there is enough flexibility in our plan to accommodate most parents. We are however noting that when they opt for traditional schools the automatic programs they're automatically opting for two schools one for the lower elementary and one for the upper elementary. One school in an all white area another school in a an all black area. If they opt out one of the less traditional programs in all likelihood they're opting for only one school and that school will probably be in some area midpoint between predominantly black and predominantly white geographic areas. So you're saying if a child if a parent a mob's by the traditional chances could be.

That the child could end up one or two years in say East Boston and then another couple of years in Rock Springs. That's correct. The question remaining is will the school committee approve the plan and send it on to Judge Garrity. He has mentioned several times he wants the committee's approval on any desegregation plan. The committee has repeatedly refused to condone any form of desegregation. Attorneys say now however the judge Verity could place the committee in contempt of court if they do not vote on the plan. The committee may chance it but it is doubtful that superintendent William Leary would take such a chance. He along with the committee is a codefendant and it is his staff that has worked tirelessly on the desegregation plan. When asked if he will submit the plan even without the committee's approval. Superintendent Larry gives a curt no comment. But friends say he will simply because he does not want to land in jail with the school committee. The political leadership of the state and city the governor and the mayor both of whom have been visible at various times during Boston's desegregation were both silent today.

Neither man's office could tell me precisely why the mayor and the governor were silent on the first day of court ordered busing Mayor White reacted firmly to the stoning of school buses leaving South Boston. He appeared at a City Hall at City Hall at 5 o'clock to personally denounce what had happened. I don't intend to let this happen again. As isolated as this incident was it was more than we the whole people of this city will permit. This week I promised the safety of all the children of the city. We kept that promise in 99 percent of the cases. But I promised 100 percent not 99. And that promise I intend to keep. I appealed to the leadership particularly in South Boston to act responsibly and pull the community together. And I served notice tonight the beginning this evening and continuing to Mom mourning and as long as is

necessary. The troubled violent incident in South Boston the mayor had no statement and the governor who had publicly announced he was calling up the National Guard had been in touch with the situation but the governor according to the spokesman had no plans to issue a statement. So if the level of violence in the desegregation has gone up the level of top official visibility. Thank you for joining us.