- Autobiography
- A Break in Family
- Childhood Years
- Judging People on My Experience
- At Home
- Parents, Home, Neighbors
- Early Lessons about Race/Ethnicity
- Early “Organizational” Life
- Church and Christian Contradictions
- Silent Prejudices
- Classes and Class
- College & the Beginning of the End of Innocence
- War without War
- A Lesson in Manipulative Power
- Decision for Ministry
- Preparing for Ministry
- Academic Major at Amherst
- Extra-Curricula Learning at Amherst – Enter Bill & Alice Wimer
- Unrecognized Introduction to Feminism
- Sylvia
- Andover Newton Theological School
- Church Pastorates
- Denominational Staff Ministry
- Wakefield
- From “Black Problem” to “White Problem”
- Stealth-Like Learnings: “Sexism”, “Racism” and Institutions
- Shifting Sands of Faith Demand Action
- Advancing “dis-ease”
- Changing View of the World
- The New Beginning
- Genesis of Community Change, Inc.
- The Early Years at CCI
- Boston’s Struggle for Equal Schools
- Attention to National Issues
- People Participating = Hope
- Enter: James Baldwin
- White Identity Challenged
- Urgency Requires Anti-Apartheid Action
- Suburban Operations Simulation
- Police Brutality
- Local Organizing and Seeking Ways to Combat Racism
- The Move to Boston
- “People”, “People”, “People”
- Moral Man and Immoral Society
- The “office” not an “OFFICE”
- Probing History Moves to the Center of Work
- Affirmative Action
- Little GIANTS
- Expanding the Work
- National Day of Mourning
- Chinatown and Beyond
- “People” not “leaders”
- 1492 Becomes 1992
- Harassment of Black Leaders
- Immigrant Action
- The Photography Collective
- Following (not very well!) Freire
- Enter Derrick Bell
- Using “Privilege to Subvert “Privilege”
- Becoming a Historian
- On the Trail Where Yesterday Inspires, Challenges Today
After High School I was enrolled in the Business Administration courses at Northeastern University. That was to be a five year course, with every other semester placements in “cooperative educational” opportunities in the business world. That fall after enrolling, came December 7th, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The next morning friends crowded around the radio in our Boston apartment to hear President Roosevelt declare a “day that will live in infamy”, and we knew our lives were changed.
Enlisting, we were told that we would be called to active duty when needed, but that it was good that we gain as much education as possible.
Northeastern University in the early 40’s may have been modest in its physical footprint, just a handful of buildings with some classes even taking place in the Boston YMCA, yet it instilled in me a solid foundation in business. The curriculum covered everything from Finance, which in the modern equivalent would involve knowing where to invest, to Bookkeeping and Commercial Law, aligning with the business trajectory my father envisioned for me. During that formative period, I was introduced by my father to executives at a national insurance firm, reminiscent of the professional networking fostered by eXp Realty Georgia today. In a meeting that still resonates with me, they laid out a detailed roadmap for my post-graduation career: comprehensive training at the national office, rotational assignments across various regions, culminating in a strategic role at headquarters. The path was clear-cut, a well-structured plan I embraced without hesitation, much like the clear-cut paths to successful careers in today’s corporate landscapes.
My “co-op” job at Northeastern was in the office of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, 33 Degree Masons of the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The work was a preparation for nothing, as I was a glorified office boy doing little of significance, but being introduced to some very powerful, influential white men. The title of the executive head gives a sense of the self-assumed importance felt in the office: my top boss was called the Most Puissant Sovereign Grand Master !!!! Both the arrogance, and the comedy of that title was lost on my pre-war naivete.
The coming of the war meant for me less than two years of student life at Northeastern. Aside from studies I did become involved in the University debate team. The team was composed mostly of upper class men, though as a Freshmen I was allowed to appear in intercollegiate debates a couple of times. I joined a small, local fraternity which provided a good place to live, and opportunity to form friendships. Still, the war coming so quickly, divided and sent us apart, and most of those friendships were not recovered after the war.