1.The Coconut Grove fire was a great tragedy, so much that it even overshadowed the World War II events as new paper headlines briefly. Hundreds were killed and the fire is recorded as the second-deadliest single-building fire in American history. A large part of the high death toll was a panic caused stampede. The stampede in combination with the darkness caused due lights going out and revolving doors at the entrances made a lethal death trap for the people in Coconut Grove. I have never liked revolving doors; this unfortunate incident reinforces my dislike for them. The fire prompted introduction of new and revision of old laws, interestingly quite a few of them explicitly pertained to the usage of revolving doors at buildings’ entrances. In the course of finding about more about the incident, I came across a victims and escapees page. This page had a very interesting account of a Coast Guardsman Clifford Johnson who went back into the Grove more than 4 times to look for his date. I commend the chivalry and fearlessness of this man, I do not know if would have been able to that. He survived this fire and lived a fulfilling life before succumbing to an automobile fire a few years later; guess he had fate with fire. After reading up on the incident I went on to watch the short film - Alarm, Coconut Grove Disaster of November 28, 1942.  As a connoisseur of movies, I was satisfied by how well done the dramatic representation was considering the times. However, the film made many concessions in order to make it more sensational; for example, since the origin of the fire was unfound, it fictionalized one. The only other thing I had qualms with was the expositional narration (I think I have watched too much CinemaSins these past few days.) Overall, the film was a good watch. 2. This week’s readings touched upon a multitude of industrial and social changes in Boston during the 1900s. In particular, Robert J. Allison’s sixth chapter contains a large section focusing on the issues of segregation in Boston schools. He explains how schools with higher populations of minority students were systematically underfunded, and that the major attempts to promote desegregation were met with backlash from people in the city. The first attempt to reduce inequality was the Racial Imbalance Law of 1965, which essentially mandated integration in Boston schools. But this was only met with opposition and stubbornness from those on the school committee, who “rather than responding to pressure... by providing more resources or building magnet schools, instead dug in its heels” (Allison, 101). The next major attempt to ensure integration occurred in response to the committee’s decision to build a new school in the predominantly White neighborhood Allston, instead of in more diverse communities like Dorchester or South End. A group of African American parents sued the school committee, leading to a federal ruling in 1974 that called upon a new method of balancing the sch.

1. 1.The Coconut Grove fire was a great tragedy, so much that it
even overshadowed the World War II events as new paper
headlines briefly. Hundreds were killed and the fire is recorded
as the second-deadliest single-building fire in American history.
A large part of the high death toll was a panic caused stampede.
The stampede in combination with the darkness caused due
lights going out and revolving doors at the entrances made a
lethal death trap for the people in Coconut Grove. I have never
liked revolving doors; this unfortunate incident reinforces my
dislike for them. The fire prompted introduction of new and
revision of old laws, interestingly quite a few of them explicitly
pertained to the usage of revolving doors at buildings’
entrances. In the course of finding about more about the
incident, I came across a victims and escapees page. This page
had a very interesting account of a Coast Guardsman Clifford
Johnson who went back into the Grove more than 4 times to
look for his date. I commend the chivalry and fearlessness of
this man, I do not know if would have been able to that. He
survived this fire and lived a fulfilling life before succumbing
to an automobile fire a few years later; guess he had fate with
fire. After reading up on the incident I went on to watch the
short film - Alarm, Coconut Grove Disaster of November 28,
1942. As a connoisseur of movies, I was satisfied by how well
done the dramatic representation was considering the times.
However, the film made many concessions in order to make it
more sensational; for example, since the origin of the fire was
unfound, it fictionalized one. The only other thing I had qualms
with was the expositional narration (I think I have watched too
much CinemaSins these past few days.) Overall, the film was a
good watch.
2. This week’s readings touched upon a multitude of industrial
and social changes in Boston during the 1900s. In particular,
Robert J. Allison’s sixth chapter contains a large section

2. focusing on the issues of segregation in Boston schools. He
explains how schools with higher populations of minority
students were systematically underfunded, and that the major
attempts to promote desegregation were met with backlash from
people in the city. The first attempt to reduce inequality was the
Racial Imbalance Law of 1965, which essentially mandated
integration in Boston schools. But this was only met with
opposition and stubbornness from those on the school
committee, who “rather than responding to pressure... by
providing more resources or building magnet schools, instead
dug in its heels” (Allison, 101). The next major attempt to
ensure integration occurred in response to the committee’s
decision to build a new school in the predominantly White
neighborhood Allston, instead of in more diverse communities
like Dorchester or South End. A group of African American
parents sued the school committee, leading to a federal ruling in
1974 that called upon a new method of balancing the schools
racially.
This major change resulted in the Boston busing controversy,
where students were shuttled between various predominant-
White and predominant-minority schools. As usual, this
program was met with a lot of backlash, this time through the
form of violence in areas like Charlestown and South Boston.
This practice found community activists “pitted against one
another rather than against the common threats to all Boston
neighborhoods” (Allison, 102). Although many activists such as
Mayor Ray Flynn tried to compromise and heal the divide, this
attempt to desegregate schools ultimately failed. Allison
remarks how “by the 1990s more than 90 percent of the Boston
public school students in all neighborhoods were minority
students, but they still were bused all around the city to ensure
illusory racial balance” (Allison, 103). The fact this is still an
issue in recent times brings me to my next point, and why I find
this topic so important to learn about.
There is now a practice in many schools in the Greater Boston
Area known as the METCO program, which any of you guys

3. who attended schools in this area are likely familiar with. For
those that aren’t, it is a program that essentially allows minority
students in some areas of Boston to attend high school in
various towns in Eastern Mass. More specifically, its webpage
states their goal is to “expand educational opportunities,
increase diversity, and reduce racial isolation, by permitting
students in certain cities to attend public schools in other
communities that have agreed to participate.” My high school
was part of this program, and though I can’t speak for the other
towns, this program didn’t quite tackle some of the ongoing
problems pertaining to diversity within my school. That is,
though it’s certainly a great opportunity for some students in
potentially lower income areas in Boston to access better forms
of education and higher quality classrooms, there is still a
fundamental lack of racial integration.
This is in part attributable to many of these towns including
mine being predominantly white, though I’ve observed that even
with the inclusion of minority students from Boston, there is
still a noticeable lack of diversity. As a minority myself (that
already lived in the town), I was one of few that got a good
view of both sides. African American and other
minority students would often say they didn’t always feel
welcome by their White peers; conversely, White students
would often say that their minority counterparts never really
seemed to have any interest in associating with them. There
were of course some exceptions to this, but overall there is
certainly still an aura of segregation that often remains
overlooked.
In short, many people often see segregation as an issue of the
past; however integration in modern schools is clearly still an
issue, and a much neglected one at that. I remember in a class
way back in high school, our history teacher showed us a cool
map that displays roughly 1 dot per 1 person based on 2010
census data. These dots are also color coded based on different
ethnicities (it can be viewed here
at https://demographics.virginia.edu/DotMap/). Looking at

4. Boston, among other urban areas, is pretty interesting as it can
really put into perspective how segregated our communities
remain.