This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the Boston Summer Project, the first such project held by the Progressive Labor Party and its Party-led mass organization, the International Committee Against Racism (InCAR).
Forty years ago, Boston was one of the most segregated and racist cities in the country. The ruling class of Boston profited greatly from dividing workers along racial lines and many white workers bought into the racist ideas pushed by the politicians. It was dangerous for Black workers to enter all-white neighborhoods like Charlestown and South Boston. Black families who moved into white neighborhoods were attacked. Schools in Black neighborhoods were woefully underfunded and overcrowded; schools in working-class white neighborhoods were not much better. Racist covenants by white homeowners banned sale of homes to  Black families.
For years, Black parents and community organizations had fought for better schooling for their children. It was found that the city of Boston had engaged in a deliberate, systematic pattern of segregation of its public schools. Therefore, in 1974, Boston was ordered by a federal judge to desegregate its schools by busing Black children to schools in white neighborhoods and vice versa. Immediately, racist city council members Louise Day Hicks and Albert O’Neil organized a group called ROAR-Restore Our Alienated Rights, (which was more accurately nicknamed Racists on a Rampage) to protest the busing order. During the 1974—75 school year, ROAR organized mob violence against Black children bused into South Boston.
PLP decided to organize a project in the summer of 1975 to combat this blatantly racist violence. It began with our May Day march in Boston where we were physically attacked by a group of racists and soundly defeated them. Then the Party and InCAR sent more than 125 people from all over the U.S., mostly students, to Boston for the summer. Our activities varied. Some organized an anti-racist summer school for Black children who had lost considerable schooling due to a year of racist attacks. Others enrolled in courses in community colleges to spread ideas of multiracial unity. We held daily rallies against ROAR’s racist ideas and collected thousands of signatures on a petition calling for multiracial unity, an end to mob violence and quality, integrated education for all. We went on the offensive against the local racists by fighting them physically again and again. There was a constant tension that permeated the city. By the summer’s end, we so weakened the power of the racist anti-busing movement that ROAR was defeated.
Then in September 1975, PLP and InCAR members rallied to greet Black children on the first day of school. The cops pushed us into a crowd of racists throwing stone at the kids. PL’ers turned their bullhorn on the racists with a message of multiracial unity.
For many, Boston ’75 was a defining moment in our lives. For some it marked an increased commitment to fight for a communist revolution. Even for others who are no longer members of Progressive Labor Party, it was a time of political commitment and activism that we can look back on with pride.
Today, capitalists are still building racist terror to prevent workers from uniting. We invite all antiracists to join us in celebrating May Day 2015. It is especially important now to learn about that movement since the ruling class rewrote history, and expunged the blatant racism of the anti-busing movement from the record.