How Community Activism Made the New Boston Better

Author and activist, Jim Vrabel will facilitate a conversation among history makers. The discussion will focus on the role that protests, demonstrations, and increased civic involvement by residents in the 1960s and 1970s played in the physical, economic, and social improvements made to the city during and since that time – in areas like urban renewal, community development, transportation, civil rights, school and welfare reform, employment, and service delivery. The discussion will explore reasons for the rise in community activism in that era and the state of activism today. Vrabel will provide a brief overview of Boston in the 1950s and list some of the various activist movements of the 1960s and 1970s. He will be joined by:

• Tom Corrigan
  Now a resident of Connecticut, he was a member of the Association of Boston Urban Priests, a founder of the Ecumenical Social Action Committee, and served as the representative of the Archdiocese of Boston to Massachusetts Fair Share.
• Moe Gillen
  A resident of Charlestown, he was a member of the Federation of Charlestown Organizations and of the Citywide Coordinating Council and is a former aide to Massachusetts Senator Jarrett Barrios.
• Renée Loth
  A resident of Brighton, she was editor of the East Boston Community News, served as Minister of Information for Massachusetts Fair Share, and is a columnist for the Boston Globe
• M. Daniel Richardson Jr.
  A resident of Roxbury, he was a member of the Lower Roxbury Community Corporation, served as director of the Boston office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and is a member of the Roxbury Masterplan Committee.

Jim Vrabel
A former newspaper reporter, longtime community activist, local historian, and city official. He is also author of the recently released A People’s History of the New Boston, When in Boston: A Timeline & Almanac, and Homage to Henry: A Dramatization of John Berryman’s “The Dream Songs.