Congregation Beth Elohim and its social justice committee Na’aseh hosted Acton’s 22nd Annual Martin Luther King Breakfast on Monday morning for over one hundred participants in person and over forty more via zoom. The event’s keynote speaker was Jean McGuire, a pioneering civil rights activist.
The large crowd was welcomed by Na’aseh co-chair Sarah Coletti and Congregation Beth Elohim Rabbi Braham David. Ms. Coletti acknowledged the work of Sal Lopes, who began the Acton MLK Breakfast and continues to be involved. Rabbi David welcomed the audience and acknowledged the elected officials attending the breakfast including Sen. Jamie Eldridge, Rep. Dan Sena, Rep. Simon Cataldo, Acton Select Board members Jim Snyder-Grant, Fran Arsenault, and Alissa Nicol, as well as Acton School Committee member Leela Ramachandran.
Acton resident and METCO Director for Concord Carlisle High School, Debra Jemison, introduced Jean McGuire. Ms. McGuire was a founder of METCO, the Boston region’s voluntary cross district school integration program, and its director for more than forty-three years. She was also an elected member of the Boston School Committee for ten years as its first African American woman to serve on that body. Ms. McGuire is one of sixty-nine Bostonians recognized on a wall as civil rights heroes as part of the Embrace statue on the Boston Common.
McGuire recalled her work at METCO, saying that she “never thought METCO would have to continue this long, We thought housing integration would take care of this,” implying that racial segregation would have been overcome through housing integration. She recalled the importance of the League of Women Voters and many churches in making METCO work. She also recalled the importance of host families that built bridges for the METCO families.
McGuire recalled marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Columbus Avenue in Boston. “There were not that many of us marching with him that day. Dr. King is loved now, but then he was not welcomed.”
McGuire, a former teacher, also spoke about the importance of civic literacy and told the crowd that everyone should subscribe to a local newspaper and read it to be aware of public debates and different points of view. McGuire mentioned her own advanced age–she is ninety-two–and recalled being a sixth-grader when the attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into the Second World War.
When asked after the event why Acton was not a participant in METCO, McGuire recalled that the cost of participation in the early 1970s had been a barrier, along with the need to have a large enough cohort of METCO students so that they would not be seen as tokens. She said that Acton could consider joining METCO now.
Bob Van Meter is an affordable housing and community development advocate.