P3+Chris+T,+Ricky+B,+Nikki+K,+Kelley+V

All Souls Background Terms 

=Ray Flynn= By Chris Treanor



Raymond Leo Flynn is an American politician. Flynn is a long time Roman Catholic and politician. His career started off as a Democratic member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He represented South Boston from 1971-1979. As the representative from South Boston, Ray Flynn was present during the busing crisis of the 1970’s, and the representative of South Boston during the desegregation of Boston schools. After his tenure as representative from South Boston, he served as a member of the Boston City Council from 1978-1984. In 1983, Ray Flynn successfully ran as Mayor of Boston, and was re-elected in 1987 and 1991.

=Rabbit Inn Incident= By Chris Treanor

During the 70’s in South Boston, the courts ordered the desegregation of Boston public schools, creating great tension within the people of Southie. Along Dorchester Street was where much of the racial violence took place, as that was the center of the busing incident. Around the time of the busing incident, Southie was swarmed with police, including 300 members of the Tactical Patrol Force. Due to the increased tension that the TPF brought with them, a brick was heaved through one of their windshields. When the TPF attempted to arrest a suspect, violence broke out. The night after this incident violence broke out in the Rabbit Inn as the TPF raided the place.

= = =Busing of 1974= By Chris Treanor



In a 1974 ruling, Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts declared that Boston public schools were unconstitutionally segregated. To combat the segregation, a busing plan developed by the Massachusetts State Board of Education was implemented to balance racial enrollment in public schools. This new ruling primarily affected South Boston and Dorchester. In response to the busing movement, there was an anti busing movement and riots occurred. White resistance was rather strong, and a popular resistance move was throwing rocks at the windows of buses with black students. As well as riots, soldiers needed to be stationed in order to protect people and attendance in public schools dropped. The riots became so serious that there were deaths as part of retaliation for violence on both sides.

=Michael Patrick McDonald= By Chris Treanor

Michael Patrick MacDonald is an Irish-American activist and author. MacDonald grew up in South Boston during the 1970’s, and therefore bore witness and participated in riots centered on racial tension in South Boston. MacDonald wrote the book All Souls: A Family Story From Southie as a memoir. A nationwide bestseller, the story recounts MacDonald’s life as he grew up in the Old Colony housing projects in South Boston, and his life in an Irish-Catholic neighborhood. MacDonald is also an activist against crime and violence, and helped create Boston’s gun buyback program. He continues to write and speak to people about topics such as race and class.

"Raymond Flynn." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 06 Jan. 2011.
 * Works Cited for Chris Treanor**

"BOSTON: From the Schools To the Streets." Editorial. TIME 21 Oct. 1974. Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. CNN. Web. 07 Jan. 2011.

"Desegregation Busing in the United States." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 07 Jan. 2011.

"Michael Patrick MacDonald." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 07 Jan. 2011.

Ricky Bobby: =Irish Mob= The Irish Mob is one of the oldest organized crime groups in the United States, in existence since the early 19th century. Originating in Irish American street gangs of the 19th century — famously depicted in Herbert Asbury's 1928 book //The Gangs of New York// — the Irish Mob has appeared in most major American cities, including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, and New Orleans =Irish immigration= Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey. The only self-reported ancestral group larger than Irish Americans is German Americans. In addition roughly another 3.5 million Americans identify more specifically with Scots-Irish ancestry. =National boycott day=

=Southie (South Boston)= South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. It was formerly known as Dorchester Neck and today is referred to as "Southie "by its residents. South Boston is well-known for being a working class Irish-American neighborhood. The neighborhood is also home to the Boston area's small but vibrant Polish and Lithuanian communities. The realty of South Boston has changed drastically in recent years as property values, especially in the City Point neighborhood near Castle Island, have risen to the level of some of the highest in the city.

Nikki:

Dorchester


Dorchester is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. A large part of Boston’s residents live in this neighborhood but it was not always like this. In 1870, it was a fairly small town with only about 12,000 residents. The neighborhood grew very quickly because of advancements in transportation. By 1920, the population was up to 150,000. This neighborhood is also well known for its diversity, which is still growing.

Roxbury


Roxbury is also a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. It was among the first founded towns of Massachusetts. In 1846, Roxbury became a city. It was then, on January 5, 1868, annexed to Boston. Now, along with Dorchester, it is one of the official neighborhoods of the city of Boston. It is also known for its Black culture.

Old Colony housing project


The Old Colony Housing Project can be found in South Boston, also known as Southie. It is a development that was built in 1941. Michael Patrick MacDonald and James J. Bulger, also known as Whitey Bulger, grew up there.

Works Cited "Dorchester, Boston." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 06 Jan. 2011. "Roxbury, Boston." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.// Web. 06 Jan. 2011. "Old Colony Housing Project." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.// Web. 06 Jan. 2011.

Southie Scars Linger: Michael Faith Incident



[|Michael Faith] was a seventeen year old South Boston high school student who was stabbed in the stomach by a black youth. After Michael was stabbed, a group of students keeps the black students back, preventing them from leaving. After a while a fight broke out. Towards the end, eleven people were injured. South Boston high school was a symbol of resistance to change. Southie, as the area was nick named, was predominantly Irish, Catholic, and deemed tough and not to mess with. Anger and frustration in Southie arose with the introduction of forced busing. Antibusing rallies were carefull planned, where black students would gather on street corners, fearful of attending white schools (tvnews.vanderbilt).

Mattapan:



Mattapan is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. Mattapan became a part of Boston when Dorchester (neighboring next to Mattapan) was annexed in 1870. Like many of the neighborhoods in the 19th and 20th centuries, Mattapan developed as streetcars and railroads made down town Boston more easily accesible. Mattapan, in it's entirety, is not composed of a certain kind of building. Mixed in are small apartments complexes, public housing along with single, two, and three-style family houses. The heart of Mattapan is a cross section of Blue Hill Avenue and Mattapan Square (where River Street, Blue Hill Avenue, and Cummins highway meet). According to a census taken in 2000, the population of Mattapan was, at the time, 28, 145. Fun fact: Mattapan is a Native American saying, it means "a good place to be."

In the 1960's and well into the 1970's, the demographic Mattapan changed drastically. Whereas prior to that time, Mattapan was predominantly a Jewish neighborhood. During the transition, the percentage of African and Caribbean American's living in Mattapan rose to 77%. From 1968 to 1970, turmoil became rampant. Real Estate agents began redlining (a term meaning raising or denying the cost of services such as health care, banking, access to jobs, insurance, etc.) the area, which brought about panic selling. The B-BURG (or Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group) was held partially responsible for running the Jewish community out of Mattapan.

Whitey Bulger:

James J. Bulger (lovingly nicknamed Whitey Bulger) is the alleged leader of the [|Winter Hill Gang] and a well-known fugitive. The Winter Hill Gang is an Irish-American crime family located in Boston, Massachusetts. James is the older brother of the former President of the Massachusetts State Senate (and University of Massachusetts), [|William Michael Bulger]. In the year of 1999, on August 19th, Whitey Bulger was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list as the 458th person. Currently, he is wanted for racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder, murder, money laundering, conspiracy to commit extortion, narcotic's distribution, and conspiracy to commit money laundering (wikipedia.org). In 2007, Interpol released a "red notice" (requests arrest of wanted persons with a view to extradite) for Whitey Bulger.

Mattapan to Bulger done by Kelley Van Voorst.

Works Cited for Kelley "James J. Bulger." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 07 Jan. 2011.

Kelley, Chris, and Walter Cronkite. "Busing Violence / Boston / Background -- Dec 11, 1974 -- CBS -- Vanderbilt Television News Archive." //Television News Archive//. Web. 07 Jan. 2011.

"Mattapan." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 07 Jan. 2011.