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7. Social action in the 1970s |
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(Click on any image to enlarge it.) | |||||||||
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Several significant public issues were highlights of the Council’s social action agenda in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The members of the Council responded to the feminist movement by creating a Task Force on Women. Religious leaders successfully lobbied congress members together in opposition to US involvement in Vietnam. | ||||||||
The churches became actively involved in school desegregation in Boston, what is commonly known as “the Boston Bussing Crisis”. In the fall of 1974, violence erupted in Boston around mandated bussing as a mechanism for school desegregation. The Massachusetts Council organized clergy to escort children and to provide a safety buffer for children of color. |
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Sixteen religious leaders went to Washington DC in May 1975 to meet with the Massachusetts Congressional delegation to exert pressure on behalf of the peaceful and full implementation of quality, integrated education. | ||||||||
“Our faith impels us toward
unity of all men and women. We must break down the hindrances to
unity. We, therefore, commit ourselves and we call upon the members
of our religious communities — and all other religious communities
— to work in concert for the elimination of the sin of racism,
specifically in desegregating urban schools and promoting fair and
open housing in the suburbs.” |
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The churches had carried a concern for migrant farmworkers in New England for quite some time. |
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In the 1970s this concern broadened
to include the justice struggle of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm
Workers. |
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In July 1973, the Council sent a delegation of nine Massachusetts church leaders on a solidarity and fact-finding mission to the San Joaquin Valley in California. As James Nash reported it: |
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“The delegation listened to
most parties in this struggle — striking workers, United Farm
Workers officials, Teamster representatives, growers, local clergy,
and the county sheriff. |
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Though we tried to listen objectively to all, our experiences confirm that the balance of justice leans heavily in favor of Cesar Chavez and his United Farm Workers. Serious moral violations of the rights and needs of farm workers are occurring. The self-determination and empowerment of Chicano laborers are dependent in large measure upon the outcome of this struggle. |
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Consequently, our resolve has strengthened
to promote an effective boycott of all table grapes and iceberg
lettuce which do not bear the insignia of the UFW.” |
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The Massachusetts Council received Cesar Chavez in Boston a month later, and helped promote a rally at the State House in support of the United Farm Workers cause. Chavez met with area clergy, and appeared in a television interview with Massachusetts Council leadership. |
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The Council joined interfaith efforts
to support the boycott on grapes and lettuce. |
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General Secretary Joseph Sprague expressed the commitment of the Council in these words to Chavez: “Please know that we remain unequivocally and unambiguously supportive of the United Farm Workers and that we will do all in our power to make successful the boycott in the Boston area.” |
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