Public Broadcast Laboratory; 101; Louise Day Hicks

We now have 174 precincts. There are 100 precincts to go. For 174 precincts, we have Mr. Sears, 13,127. [voiceover] - State Representative John Sears, educated at Harvard and Oxford, backed by Governor John Volpe, Senator Edward Brooke, former Senator Leverett Saltonstall, defeated in the primary. [Sears] - ...Republican or Democratic way to clean the street. There is just a good way and a bad way. - Mr. Logue, with 15,461. [Logue] - There's a lot happening in this city, you can see it on the skyline and you can see it in Charlestown... [voiceover] - Edward Logue, nationally-known urban renewal administrator, builder of the new Boston... defeated in the primary. - Mr. White with 21,658. [White] - It is

apparent from the results that Mrs. Hicks is my opponent. And I extend to her... [voiceover] - Kevin White, for six years Massachusetts' Secretary of State, the Commonwealth's second-ranking Democrat after Senator Edward Kennedy, a winner in the primary, he ran second behind a woman who topped the whole Democratic ticket when she ran for school committee two years ago. - ...all of us. - And Louise Day Hicks, with 35 thousand... [loud cheering] I am humbled by the size of tonight's election. And I wish all of the people in Boston who today went to the polls,

and cast their vote for Louise Day Hicks, a most hearty and sincere thank you. Her support looks like the support of anti-Negro candidates, white candidates throughout the United States and particularly in the South, the data I'm most familiar with. It looks like for instance, George... the supporters for George Wallace when he was running in Alabama or whether he's in a presidential primary as he was in 1964 in Wisconsin, Indiana and Maryland. Put briefly, Mrs. Hicks' supporters, when compared to those who tend to vote against her, are more poorly educated. They have lower incomes, annual incomes, and they tend to be older to some extent; also they tend more often to be female than male. Why do you suppose they vote for her?

I've already suggested what I believe is the basic reason and that is racism. But just to say racism and that her supporters are basically anti- Negro, is I think too simple to leave it there. These people, most of them anyway, are in serious, what we would like to call in social science "status threat," and now they see the Negro urging radical changes in the society -- radical as they see them -- and threatening to overtake them in terms of status. This is a very threatening thing. As you know, Mrs. Hicks makes quite a fetish out of neighborhood schools. This is not a concept that has tremendous significance for many of her supporters. 75 percent of her voters for the school committee, for instance, in 1965 did not send children to the public school, nor were they going to; they didn't have young children. Now this means they could vote for her with little worry about the Boston school system. And so they voted a protest, essentially. The

protest was about many things but one of the basic things was neighborhood integration. The key word is "neighborhood." The adjective, not the noun "school." They're much less interested in the schools than they are in racial separation by residence. And she plays on that like a harp. Over and over repeating the word "neighborhood." I believe that is they key factor in her support. Good morning. Nice to see you. Hi there. How are you? The key to the city. Hi there, young man. Here's your key to the city. - Oh no, she'll never have a problem with the colored. She's always helped them. And I think they're all for her too. There's never any racial problem. I really think that's just... if there wasn't so much written up in the papers that we wouldn't have half the problems we have. I blame the newspapers, and their articles.

- Good morning, how are you? - Say hello to Mrs. Hicks, ma'am? - Oh, I don't think the racial has really that much to do with it. I don't think it matters... that much. - As a very serious citizen of Roxbury, I'd like to know exactly what are... - Good morning, how are you? - Go ahead, shake hands. - Good morning, nice to see you. - Hi, how are you, good morning! - Say hello to Mrs. Hicks, ma'am? - I met you before at the academy. - I think I deserve an answer, Mrs. Hicks. If you intend to be the

mayor of Boston, I think you should talk to everybody. - I have to make another appointment. - Hi, how are you? - Why don't you come right along and I'll be very happy to. - How about right now, here, just like you talked to everybody else at the station? Why are you ignoring me? - Come right in with me? - No, I mean now, why don't you answer me now? - I'll be very happy to see you in my office... - Why can't you see me now in public? - I'll be right there, I've got to get down here. - Thank you very much. - I think you are a bigot. - Good morning, how are you? Nice to see you. Good morning, how are you?

- This is kind of close quarters. [unintelligible] [laughter] Thank you, that's such nice things. [elevator noises] She got more guts than the rest. More guts than the men, to speak up, for what she thinks is right! [offscreen] - What's that? - About the schools... or the colored, anything. [offscreen] - What do you think the attitude is about the colored people? - What do you mean? She goes along with the colored, she just can't see them changing schools Right? - I really think none of this trouble started until, like, they brought them all up from the Southern states. I think it's mostly the outsiders that brought all the trouble in, not the ones

that lived here for years and years. They were all happy here. They never wanted to send their kids to other schools, until the other ones came in. - No. It shouldn't be like that, it never was. Look how long the colored have been here. Why should they change now? It's just a few troublemakers, I think. - OK? -Thank you very much. [car beeping] Are you going to do the first bit? [unintelligible, backstage noises] - Are we ready? - Excuse me.

[footsteps, backstage noises] - John? - Yes? - Do you cut back on this? - Excuse me? - Do you cut back on this? [unintelligible] - Do you want me to read from... [unintelligible] - ...as long as where I can get from where I am now. - I don't want to use a recognizable staffer. -Yeah, Dave's right out here, he's talking to Jack... - This is Louise Day Hicks, candidate for Mayor of Boston. You know it doesn't matter what the color of her mother's skin is, she wants her little child in the neighborhood school. If you ask me, you know where I stand, you know where I stand, I stand on behalf of all the people of Boston and I shall represent as mayor all of the people. [voice on telephone] - Yes, Mrs. Hicks? [Hicks] - Yes.

[voice on telephone] - I know that you stand a very good chance to make the mayor of Boston. But I would like to know if you're going to be like other bigots, like Lester Maddox of Georgia when you get in office because you're speaking for bigots that can't speak for themselves, and they're using you to speak for them. Are you going to turn on the bigots when you get in, and start doing something for the Negro? [Hicks] - I should just ignore your question. But may I say this? I have challenged many people in this city, many people who may make such a claim as you make, to prove by any action of mine, any word of mine, that I am anti-Negro, and I will put my record of accomplishment for the educational welfare of Negro children up against anyone in this great city. I certainly realize the problems of Negro children and I have compassion for these problems but more than having compassion, and having bleeding hearts as many other people have, I'm doing something about it. And certainly this is a lot more than other people who maybe you feel are not doing something about it. It is important

to me the welfare of every child in this city, educationally, and I have never discriminated against any child by race, color, or creed. - [Host] Mr. Robins, does that answer your question? [voice on telephone] - Yes it does, in a way, but I shouldn't answer here either, okay. [Host] - All right, fine. [Coles] - We're having a remarkably Southern kind of election in this northern city, which is a tremendous historical irony because Boston was the leader of the whole movement to free the slaves in the, in the 19th century: all of the emancipators came, a lot of them came from Boston... abolitionists. The tradition is, was strong here in the 19th century and yet curiously enough 100 years later we have a Southern-style election in which we have a candidate, very true to contemporary Southern politics who doesn't even have to use racist talk. All she has to say is, "You know where I stand," which is just what a lot of

candidates in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, say now. They don't use vulgar, nasty, overt anti-Negro talk the way they used to a few years ago, they just get up and say, "You know what my record is. And I have proven what I stand for," and that is of course understood by the voter; he knows what they are getting at. Now I ask what she has said. - [singing campaign song] [singing] "Your key to the city, is to vote for Louise Day Hicks, rah rah!" [Hicks] - Oh dear, how wonderful! Oh how nice of you. Thank you so much. - You're very welcome. - Nice to do that song and everything! [laughter] Your presence here tonight is truly democracy in action, because you are trying to

seek out and have found the one who exemplifies the qualities of the person whom you want in City Hall for the next four years. And what are these qualities? Looking out there before me I see the name Hicks. H-I- C-K-S. The H in her name stands for Honesty. [applause] - [Hicks] I leave my position on the Boston School Committee with a heavy heart, because I realize there's so much to be done for Boston's children, but I cannot carry out your mandate as your School Committeewoman, so therefore I must seek a higher office to bring about change. [applause] - We... [more applause] [from crowd] - And it's about time somebody started! [Hicks] - Recent legislation, and

changes in conditions have made it impossible for us to carry out the mandate of the neighborhood school. But the most important thing about a school is not whether the mother lives across the street but in fact the most important thing is the social class milieu of the school. If the milieu is predominantly middle class -- regardless now of region, race, any other factor -- the scores of... the achievement scores of the children tend to be higher. Now this you see is quite relevant to the racial segregation matter of schools because at the most generous estimate only about one fourth of Negro America today can be considered middle class while 60 percent of white Americans are middle class. Now this means in effect there are not enough middle class Negroes to go around to furnish predominantly middle class milieus in predominately Negro schools.

I feel that the people of Boston have found their leader. She leads in bigotry, and so therefore they have given us a message. I also feel that this is a... is a terrible way to write history. Because Mrs. Hicks had the opportunity to write history in an altogether different way. [offscreen] - What could she have done? - Well, she could've gone the other way and she still would have been somebody. Now as history records her, she'll be only recorded as a person that created bigotry, created division, created hate, and it's an awful burden. But she's the one that's going to have to carry it. - Mrs. Hicks, do you recognize that there has been an urban crisis involving race relations in America in the last year or so. - The rioting, burning, and looting that you saw in Roxbury was outright lawlessness and it should have been punished as such. I have no time for those that commit crimes in the name of social... social, uh, justice. I certainly believe that civil disobedience is the most dangerous excuse for lawlessness that has ever been peddled in this country and I say that this city under my administration will

have law and order and there will be one set of rules for all people. - What if there's continued violence over the years, will that be occasion for a more liberal attitude than what most people accuse you of? - Let me say this. That as far as the order in this city, I feel that our police are most competent. What has been the problem with the police is the fact they have been sent into riot-torn areas with the order not to create an incident. When our police ever go into a riot-torn area, they will be equipped with the most modern equipment, they will not be sacrificed on the altar of civil disobedience, but instead they will maintain law and order. And if it is impossible for them to do so, we will talk over the situation and if they decide they need extra help, it will be brought to the police. Your police equipment is... it's well known that there's a $28,000 tank that's been constructed for riots with the type of gun construction and tear gas equipment that can tear gas an entire block. Also the apathy gas that they

use in quelling people in a riot, all of these things can be imagined coming in without a slight, slightest moment's hesitation. - Do you think if she's elected mayor there's a possibility of violence. - I would like to speak to that point because this is something that if you speak to that regardless of which way you word it, it's planting a seed. And I don't feel that I want to do that. As it is, if you vote for Louise Day Hicks, you're voting for violence. It's going to be more violence in Boston than there ever has been. I've gone with families to the school committee, we've been petitioning her and her colleagues for redress of their various grievances. I don't think she's an evil person. I don't think she's a bad person. I don't think she's a monster or any of these things that are used although many of the Negro families that I know who are so upset and angry call her all of this and more. I think she's a clever politician but I think there comes a time even in American politics, which has had its sordid element all along, there comes a time when even a... even an American politician

has to decide that there are certain moral issues that they cannot exploit for their success. And in that sense I don't think she's drawn the line where I think most of the other political candidates in Boston have, and most of the political candidates in this country so far have, and this country will be brought to its knees and destroyed if its political leaders do not refuse the temptation to play that kind of politics: the politics of the backlash, the politics of racism. It almost destroyed the South and it can destroy this country. [applause] We will go forward, with our banner, of Boston for Bostonians, to a victory on November the 7th! [cheers, applause] [continued cheers and applause] May the best woman win!

You [sustained cheering and applause] - This way. I [band music plays] you. [crowd singing] We have 174 precincts. There are 100 precincts to go. dole.

For 174 precincts, we have Louise Day Hicks, with 35 thousand [covered up by cheering] [continued cheering and screams] - I am humbled by the size of tonight's election. And I wish all of the people in Boston who today went to the polls and cast their vote for Louise Day Hicks, a most hearty and sincere thank you. [band playing, cheers] [voiceover] - Supporters of Louise Day Hicks for Mayor of Boston. They have lower incomes, less education and tend to be older than those who vote against her. They're her people and she says she'll protect them from the university taking property off the tax rolls, from the urban renewal bulldozer,

from the big banker. But mainly from the Negro. The sociologists compare them to the supporters of anti-Negro candidates in the South. They say Mrs. Hicks in Boston could be George Wallace in Alabama. But to call it racism is too simple. Many of these people are struggling to make it on their own. They resent the special attention given the Negro. As Professor Hylan Lewis said, "The Negro wants in and they find this threatening." And so they rally behind School Committeewoman Hicks and her campaign to "preserve neighborhood schools." She plays on the phrase like a harp. What it means is "Keep the Negroes in their own neighborhood." The key word is neighborhood. And not schools. - [music playing] - Say hello to Mrs. Hicks, sir? - Hi, how are you, nice to see you.

- Say hello to Mrs. Hicks, ma'am? - Thank you very much. - Say hello to Mrs. Hicks, sir? - Good morning, how are you? - As a very serious of Roxbury, I'd like to know, exactly what are you -- - I'll be very happy to see you in my office! - If you intend to be a mayor of Boston, I think you should talk to everybody. - I think you're a bigot! - She got more guts than the rest. She's got more guts than the men, to speak up for what she thinks is right. - What's that? - About the schools. Or the colored, anything. - What do you think the attitude is about the colored people? - What do you mean? Oh, she goes along with the colored, she just can't see them changing schools, right? - I really think none of this trouble started until they brought them all up from the southern states, I think it's mostly the outsiders that brought all the trouble in, not the ones that lived here for years and years.

They were all happy here. They never wanted to send their kids to other schools. Until the other ones came in. It shouldn't be like that, it never was. Look how long the colored have been here, why should they change now? It's just a few troublemakers, I think. [inaudible] - Okay? - Thank you very much. - Okay. [backstage noises] - John? - Yeah? - Do you cut back on this? - Excuse me? - Do you cut back on this? [inaudible response] - Do you want me to read... [inaudible] This is Louise Day Hicks, candidate for

Mayor of Boston. You know, it doesn't matter what the color of a mother's skin is, she wants her little child in a neighborhood school. If you ask me, you know where I stand. You know where I stand. I stand on behalf of all the people of Boston and I shall represent as Mayor all of the people. - [telephone caller] Yes, Mrs. Hicks. - Yes. - I know that you stand a very good chance to make the Mayor of Boston. But I would like to know if you're going to be like other bigots, like Lester Maddox of Georgia, when you get in office because you're speaking for bigots that can't speak for themselves, and they're using you to speak for them. Are you going to turn on the bigots when you get in, and start doing something for the Negro? - I should just ignore your question. I say this, I have challenged many people in this city, many people who make such a claim as you make to prove by any action of mine, by any word of mine, that I am anti-Negro, and I will put my record of accomplishment for the educational welfare of Negro children up against

anyone in this great city. I certainly realize the problems of Negro children and I have compassion for these problems, but more than having compassion and having bleeding hearts as many other people have, I'm doing something about it. And certainly this is a lot more than other people who maybe you feel are not doing something about it. It is important to me, the welfare of every child in this city, educationally, and I have never discriminated against any child, by race color or creed. - Mr. Robins, does that answer your question? - [caller] Yes, it does in a way, but I shouldn't answer here either, okay. - All right, fine. We're having a remarkably Southern kind of election in this Northern city which is a tremendous historical irony because Boston was the leader of the whole movement to free the slaves in the... in the 19th century, all of the emancipators came... a lot of them came from Boston

abolitionists. The tradition was strong here in the 19th century and yet, curiously enough, a hundred years later we have a Southern style election in which we have a candidate, very true to contemporary Southern politics, who doesn't even have to use racist talk. All she has to say is "You know where I stand," which is just what a lot of candidates in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, say now. They don't use vulgar, nasty, overt anti-Negro talk the way they used to a few years ago, they just get up and say, "You know what my record is. And I have proven what I stand for," and that is of course understood by the voter, he knows what they are getting at. Now that's what she has said. [singing] "Your key to the city is to vote for Louise Day Hicks!" - Oh dear, how wonderful

how nice of you, thank you so much. - You're very welcome. - You learned the song and everything! Your presence here tonight is truly democracy in action. Because you are trying to seek out and have found the one who exemplifies the qualities of the person you want to see in City Hall the next four years. And what are these qualities? Looking out there before me, I see the name "Hicks." H-I-C-K-S. The H in her name stands for "honesty." I feel that the people of Boston have found their leader, she leads in bigotry and so therefore they have given us a message. I also feel that this is a terrible way to write history. Because Mrs. Hicks had the

opportunity to write history in an altogether different way. - [offscreen] What could she have done? Well, she could've gone the other way and she still would have been somebody. Now as history records her she'll be only recorded as a person that created bigotry, created division, created hate, and it's an awful burden, but she's the one that's going to have to carry it. - [offscreen] Mrs. Hicks, do you recognize that there has been an urban crisis involving race relations in America in the last year or so. - The rioting, burning and looting that you saw in Roxbury was outright lawlessness and it should've been punished as such. I have no time for those that commit crimes in the name of social... social justice. I certainly believe that civil disobedience is the most dangerous excuse for lawlessness that has ever been peddled in this country, and I say that this city under my administration will have law and order, and there will be one set of rules for all people. - What if there is continued violence over the years, would that be occasion for a more liberal attitude than

what most people accuse you of? - Let me say this. That as far as the order in this city, I feel that our police are most competent. What has been the problem with the police is the fact they have been sent into riot-torn areas with the order not to create an incident. When our police ever go into a riot-torn area, they will be equipped with the most modern equipment. They will not be sacrificed on the altar of civil disobedience but instead they will maintain law and order. And if it is impossible for them to do so, we will talk over the situation and if they decide they need extra help it will be brought to the police. Your police equipment, it's well-known that there's a twenty eight thousand dollar tank that's been constructed for riots with the type of gun construction and tear gas equipment that can tear gas an entire block. Also the apathy gas that they use in quelling people in a riot, all of these things it can be imagined it coming in without a slight... slightest moment's

hesitation. Do you think if she is elected mayor there's a possibility of... of violence? I wouldn't like to speak to that point because this is something that if you speak to that regardless of which way you word it, it's planting a seed and I don't feel that I want to do that. - I will say this, if you vote for Louise Day Hicks, you're voting for violence, there's going to be more violence in Boston than there ever has been. I've gone with families to the school committee who have been petitioning her and her colleagues for redress of their various grievances. I don't think she's an evil person. I don't think she's a bad person. I don't think she's a monster or any of these things that are used, although many of the Negro families that I know who were so upset and angry call her all this and more. I think she's a clever politician but I think there comes a time even in American politics, which is had its sordid element all along, there comes a time when even a, even an American politician has to decide that there are certain moral issues that they cannot exploit for their success.

And in that sense I don't think she's drawn the line where I think most of the other political candidates in Boston have and most of the political candidates in this country so far have, and this country will be brought to its knees and destroyed if its political leaders do not refuse the temptation to play that kind of politics, the politics of the backlash, the politics of racism. It almost destroyed the South and it can destroy this country. [applause] We will go forward with our banner of Boston for Bostonians, to a victory on November the 7th. [cheers, applause] Thank May the best

woman win! [cheers, applause] [band playing music] [crowd singing] you. It is apparent from the results that Mrs. Hicks is my opponent. And I extend to her this evening my congratulations. - [crowd cheering, screaming] - I am humbled by the size of

tonight's election and I wish all of the people in Boston who today went to the polls and cast their vote for the Louise Day Hicks a most hearty and sincere thank you. [band playing] I will say this, if you vote for Louise Day Hicks, you're voting for violence, there's going to be more violence in Boston than there ever has been. That isn't so. She's just a good candidate and she'll be a good mayor for all the people of Boston. [band playing]

I agree with her 100 percent, and about this police force and stuff like that I go for it myself. The protection that she's going to give. - Your police equipment, it's well-known that there's a twenty eight thousand dollar tank that's been constructed for riots with the type of gun construction and tear gas equipment that can tear gas an entire block. Also the apathy gas that they use in quelling people in a riot, all of these things can be imagined coming in without a slight... slightest moment's hesitation. [band playing] She goes along with the coloreds, she just can't see them changing schools.

They're much less interested in the schools than they are in racial separation by residence, and she plays on that like a harp over and over repeating the word "neighborhood." I believe that is, among many other factors, but I believe that is the key factor in her support. [band playing] I feel that the people of Boston have found their leader, she leads in bigotry and so therefore they have given us a message. I also feel that this is a terrible way to write history. Because Mrs. Hicks had the opportunity to write history in an altogether different way. - What could she have done? - Well, she could have gone the other way and she still would have been somebody. Now as history records her, she'll be only recorded as a person that created bigotry, created division, created hate. And it's an awful burden, but she's the one who's going to have to carry it.

Oh no, she'll never have a problem with the colored. She's always helped them. And I think they're all for her too. There's never any racial problem. I, I really think that's just... If there wasn't so much written up in the papers then we wouldn't have half the problems we have. - [backstage noises] - John? - Yeah? - Do you cut back on this? - Excuse me? - Do you cut back on this? - [inaudible] - Do you want me to read... [inaudible] - This is Louise Day Hicks, candidate for the Mayor of Boston. You know it doesn't matter what the color of a mother's skin is. She wants her little child in a neighborhood school. If you ask me, you know where I stand, you know where I stand, I stand on behalf of all the people of Boston and I shall represent as Mayor all of the people. [telephone caller] - Yes, Mrs. Hicks? - Yes? - I know that you stand a

very good chance to make the Mayor of Boston. But I would like you know if you're going to be like other bigots, like Lester Maddox of Georgia, when you get in office, because you're speaking for bigots that can't speak for themselves and they're using you to speak for them. Are you going to turn on the bigots when you get in and start doing something for the Negro? I should just ignore your question. But may I say this? I have challenged many people in this city, many people who make such a claim as you make to prove by any action of mine, by any word of mine, that I am anti- Negro and I will put my record of accomplishment for the educational welfare of Negro children up against anyone in this great city. I certainly realize the problems of Negro children and I have compassion for these problems but more than having compassion and having bleeding hearts as many other people have I'm doing something about it. And certainly this is a lot more than other people who maybe you feel are not doing something about it.

It is important to me, the welfare of every child in this city educationally. And I have never discriminated against any child by race, color or creed. - [host] Mr. Robins, does that answer your question? - [telephone] Yes, it does in a way. - [singing] ...your key to the city is to vote for Louise Day Hicks! - [Hicks] Oh dear, how wonderful, how nice of you! That's. - You learned the song! - Your presence here tonight is truly democracy in action, because you are trying to seek out and have found the one who exemplifies the qualities of the person whom you want in City Hall for the next four years.

And what are these qualities? Looking out there before me, I see the name, "Hicks." H-I- C-K-S. The H in her name stands for honesty. - The real reason that I am running for the office of Mayor, is because I am alarmed. As a woman, I am alarmed that I no longer can walk the streets of Boston in safety. I am alarmed as a mother and an educator, that education in the public school system is geared to busmobile rather than bookmobile. And as an attorney, I am alarmed to see firefighters stoned in Roxbury, welfare workers chained in their places of employment... [inaudible, applause] [applause] And the wrong-doers go without punishment. I believe in civil rights for all, but I do not believe in preferential rights for some at the expense of the community.

- Hi there, how are you, nice to see you, please remember me Tuesday! Hi there, please remember me. Hi there, fella. - Say hello to Mrs. Hicks, sir? - Hi, how are you, nice to see you. - Say hello to Mrs. Hicks, ma'am? - As a very serious citizen of Roxbury, I'd like to know exactly what are you... [interrupting] Good morning, how are you? - Go ahead, shake hands. - How are you? Good morning, nice to see you. - How are you? Nice to see you. Good morning! Hi! How are you. - If you intend to be the Mayor of Boston, I think you should talk to everybody! - [faint, inaudible] - I've got to make another appointment. - Say hello to Mrs. Hicks? [traffic noises] - Good morning, nice to see you. Why don't you come right along and I'll be

very happy to. - Well, I'd like to ask you here. - I'll be very very happy to. - Right now, here, just like you talked to everybody else at the station. Why are you ignoring me? - Come right in with me. No. I mean now. Why don't you answer me now? - Come right in, we'll give you an interview. - I'll be very happy to see you in my office. - Why can't see you me now, in public? - I'll be right there, I've got to get down here. - Thank you very much. - I think you are a bigot. The rioting, burning, and looting that you saw in Roxbury was outright lawlessness and it should have been punished as such. I have no time for those that commit crimes in the name of social... social justice. I certainly believe that civil disobedience is the most dangerous excuse the lawlessness that has ever peddled in this country and I say that this city under my administration will have law and order and there will be one set of rules for all people. - What if there is continued violence over the years, would that be occasion for a more liberal attitude than what most people accuse you of. - Let me say this.

That as far as the order in this city, I feel that our police are most competent. What has been the problem with the police is the fact they have been sent into riot-torn areas with the order not to create an incident. When our police ever go into a riot-torn area, they will be equipped with the most modern equipment. They will not be sacrificed on the altar of civil disobedience, but instead they will maintain law and order, and if it is impossible for them to do so, we will talk over the situation and if they decide they need extra help, it will be brought to the police. Another question? Sir? - Mrs. Hicks, families who have moved into the D Street Projects have constantly harassed by citizens in that area. And the question I want to ask is, how do you propose to give greater amount and level of integration in the public housing which by and large is tax-supported and the laws said must be, how do you propose, what kind of program would you support or propose to deal with the problem of greater amount of integration, of protection of Negro families who move into a housing

project where there are hostilities. - I realize that this is a problem because with a racial imbalance law we are unable to build schools in the Roxbury area of Boston... of this city, simply because of the fact that there are predominantly Negro areas. In this particular area of the city there is public housing and we were unable to build a neighborhood school because the public housing, although we were promised by the Mayor that the public housing would be integrated, the particular housing which is on the Humboldt Avenue site, came in with about approximately 96 or 97 percent Negro population. [applause] We will go forward with our banner of Boston for Bostonians, to a victory on November the 7th! [cheers, applause] May the best woman win! [cheers]

[cheers, applause] - This way! - Mrs. Hicks! [cheering, band plays, crowd singing] You.