Boston Mayor Kevin White Requests Federal Support (1974)

Two weeks ago I asked the people of this city to be decent with one another during these difficult times of implementing Judge Garrity's order. The vast majority of people in this city have tried to be decent to one another. Unfortunately violence has broken out in certain sections of this city. That there is dissatisfaction with the law is understandable. I myself have dissatisfied with certain sections of that law. But as long as it is the law, then we as a city will and must abide by it. Violence is not an answer. Beating up of one black man because of the color of his skin will not change the law. Throwing bricks at a bus in which there are 14 year olders rioting will not change the law. Having prayer meetings, demonstrations, or closing bar rooms will not change the law. If we've learned nothing else over the last few months as a nation, as a city, and as a people, it is that we are a nation of laws and not of men of passions or of violence. The court has

ruled that busing is a law in Boston and this city is under a federal court order. The Boston Police cannot implement this law alone. And so today I asked Judge Garrity to supply federal marshals so that the federal court order can be implemented, so that we can maintain safety, and so that the children of this city can get on, black and white, with the process of education. The court must now demonstrate, the federal court, the sincerity of its own intentions to implement its own law in this city.