Boston: The Unfinished Agenda

Extract

In January 1986 Bruce Boiling, a member of the Boston City Council, became the first black president in the council's 166-year history. Boiling's presidency marks the culmination of the slow, but steadily growing empowerment of blacks in Boston politics. While blacks have always been present in Boston politics they have more often been observers, rather than participants as the Yankees and the Irish have dominated the political stage. In order to understand the role of blacks in Boston it is necessary to have some background knowledge of how Yankee paternalism retarded black political development and how Irish displacement of the Yankees resulted in the exclusion of blacks from Democratic party politics.

Historical Antecedents

Boston politics has its roots in the historical relationships among the Yankees, the Irish, and the blacks. Under Yankee domination colonial and pre-Civil War blacks experienced racial harmony in an atmosphere where they could enjoy civil and political rights. Wealthy Yankee traders viewed free blacks paternalistically, as a low income class of people (Lupo, 1977, p. 124). Since Yankees were members of the political and cultural elite they did not perceive blacks as an economic threat to their position. Consequently, blacks could freely operate businesses, buy property, and run for office (Horton, 1979).

As slavery became an increasingly important issue in the 1850s free blacks and Yankee abolitionists formed integrated organizations to end slavery. Abolitionist organizations provided an opportunity for free blacks to learn organizational and political skills. Yet, blacks often found that their efforts to become leaders were thwarted by white patrons who expected blacks to work only as obedient followers. A notable case among many was the conflict between white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass, a former slave, over the crucial issue of the future role of blacks in electoral politics (Quarles, 1969). Frederick Douglass broke with Garrison who felt that blacks should not be encouraged to vote in a political system where the Constitution protected the rights of slaveholders (Horton, 1979, p. 86). Douglass adamantly advocated electoral participation and pulled some black abolitionists from Garrison's ranks. Douglass felt that participation in the electoral process was a necessary step in the political development of blacks. To affirm his convictions Douglass ran on the Liberal ticket for an office in New York state.