Ryan, Phyllis Day, Noel Breeden, James Day, Peggy Dammond

Description

In 1964, despite a year of sustained efforts by the NAACP, parents, and other civil rights activists, the Boston Public Schools remained racially segregated and negotiations with the Boston School Committee continued to be futile. The Citizens for Human Rights (CHR), the group that organized the Boston’s successful 1963 Stay Out for Freedom, evolved into the Massachusetts Freedom Movement (MFM) and again led by Reverend James Breeden and Noel Day, organized another Stay Out campaign for February 26, 1964. The 1964 Stay Out, however, was also part of an emerging a national school boycott movement against segregated schools in the North, including similar demonstrations in New York, Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee. WGBH-FM covered the Massachusetts Freedom Movement’s February 20, 1964 press conference in which Reverend James Breeden, Noel Day and Peggy Dammond Day provided specific instructions to parents regarding the upcoming February 26th Stay Out; challenged rumors about potential violence; outlined the Freedom School curriculum; discussed the parameters of possible actions by truant officers; and commented on a second legal opinion by Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke. Brooke ruled that the parents of children who participated in the School Stay Out could be fined $20 and anyone who induced a child to stay out of school could be fined $50. Summary and select metadata for this record was submitted by Audrea Dunham.

Record Contributed By

WGBH

Record Harvested From

Digital Commonwealth