- 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
A local instance of police brutality involved us in unsuccessful organizing efforts in the summer of 1969. Two black soldiers, in uniform, were arrested by white police officers, outside a night club. The case was tried and for the first time a Massachusetts jury verdict found a police officer guilty of brutality. The two black soldiers, were awarded damages totaling $3 !!!! The award of damages was blatantly racist, assigning almost zero value to those black soldiers! We thought there would be an immediate public outcry. We publicized it as the “$3 Justice Case”, organized for a new trial and decision. Astounded at the generally easy acceptance of the verdict, we learned a lesson about the blindness of white eyes, unwilling to see. But there was no outcry, and our aborted efforts illustrated both the maddening lack of public concern, and our organizational impotence in the face of an intransigent system. That experience prepared my heart to understand later, that the denial and intransigence was rooted in a long history. James Baldwin was already working my spirit.