Phillip Martin reflects on the fight against racism in Boston

Phillip Martin. Photo by Meredith Nierman / GBH News.

The Boston Globe Magazine has published a tremendous personal essay by my GBH News colleague Phillip Martin on coming to Boston in the 1970s to fight racism. He was so bruised and battered by the experience that he returned home to Detroit — only to come back a year later and stay. He writes:

Boston was a 1970s version of 1960s Birmingham, Alabama, in my view, with white grievance over desegregation and voting rights updated as white protests over school desegregation through court-ordered busing. That history was precisely why I enlisted, somewhat naively, to go to Boston in the summer of 1975: to fight against racism.

We’ve come a long way, though we still have a long way to go. Please read what Phillip has to say.


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One thought on “Phillip Martin reflects on the fight against racism in Boston”

  1. I wish the Globe magazine would tackle serious topics like this regularly, rather than devote so many issues to frivolous things, including fashion and travel — and those ridiculous “lists.”

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