The Story Behind Bilingual Education in Boston

Bilingual education started with different proposals around the years 1967 and 1968, negotiating with the school system, with the Department of Justice, and negotiating with the Federal Government. However, it took a long time to be established. It was only until the years 1971-1972… when bilingual education was finally established in the Boston Public Schools.

When I graduated from law school in 1975, the lawyers guild that I belonged to, the Massachusetts chapter, was already representing El Comité de Padres. And Pamela Taylor and Kathleen Waramuk were two of the first attorneys on the case. The Latino parents realized when the school desegregation case was coming to orders that there was no recognition of the rights of they called other minority parents and students in the case. It was a Black and white case.

So they intervened. They came to the lawyers guild. They knew some attorneys who had worked in the community. And a parents group was formed that became El Comité, and they intervened as plaintiff interveners alongside the Black parents who were the plaintiffs in the case so that when Judge Garrity did his assignment orders in 1975, it was a three-way desegregation case instead of a two-way.

Oh! The Court gave the order. It wasn’t the school system that said, “Welcome.” No! The Justice System told them “You got to do it.” You have to educate them.

El Comité in essence while being Latino parents actually represented all of the bilingual parents, so we had I think eight language groups at one point all demonstrating for bilingual programs in front of the federal courts and the school department.