Boston, MA
‘Boston had always been a hotbed’: A peek into the history of the Boston NAACP – The Boston Globe
“Boston had always been a hotbed,” said Joseph D. Feaster Jr., then president of the NAACP’s Boston chapter. “There was no reason not to bring the convention to Boston.”
This week, as the convention returns to the city of the NAACP’s first chartered branch, local leaders are still trying to repair Boston’s image and lay the foundation for a more equitable future.
The Boston NAACP headquarters, damaged in a firebombing, on Dec. 9, 1975. DAN SHEEHAN/GLOBE STAFF
The May-June 1982 issue of EPOCH, “a Black family magazine,” featured a spread looking ahead to the NAACP national convention in Boston. It included a look at the issues affecting various regions of the country, including this snapshot of New England and the northeast. The magazine stated that major issues facing this region revolved around “minority citizens getting their ‘fair share’ of both the economic and political pie.”
A clipping from the April 7, 1982, edition of The Boston Globe quoted national NAACP executive director Benjamin L. Hooks saying that Boston’s already “suffering image as a progressive city” was further tarnished by the killing of a Black man on MBTA Red Line tracks near Savin Hill station after he was chased and attacked by a group of white youths.
In the summer of 1979, the Boston NAACP surveyed over 200 Black teenagers in the city about various topics. The results were featured in the 1979 program for the branch’s annual awards banquet. Half the teens said racial tensions in Boston had no effect on their lives. When asked if they think there will ever be racial harmony in the United States, just 17.8 percent responded positively.
A clipping from the May 21, 1982, edition of the Globe featured an interview with a Black woman who had her Dorchester house firebombed in a racially targeted attack.
The June 13, 1982, edition of the Globe featured a story about then-Mayor Kevin White being held to account over his lack of public comments about a recent firebombing attack on a Black family home.
The NAACP-sponsored march in favor of busing desegregation moved down Commonwealth Avenue towards a rally on Boston Common on May 17, 1975. An initiative to desegregate Boston Public Schools was implemented in the fall of 1974 and was met with strong resistance from many residents of Boston’s neighborhoods. TED DULLY
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Some may say Boston hasn’t changed. But Feaster, who has lived here nearly 60 years, disagrees. Boston was never the South, he said. Folks here weren’t hanged or burned.
“We’ve had issues, but I don’t think we’re the worst city for race relations in this country,” said Feaster, a lawyer with the firm Dain, Torpy, Le Ray, Wiest, & Garner P.C. who also chairs the city’s Task Force on Reparations and heads the board of directors of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts.
Still, there were days in Boston where you couldn’t go into a neighborhood without getting harassed or even firebombed, he said.
Feaster began serving with the Boston NAACP in 1974, taking over as president from 1978 through 1983, a period marked by high-profile civil rights cases, including the school desegregation case that led to the busing crisis in Boston.
In the 1970s, the Boston chapter was also filing a number of lawsuits challenging housing discrimination by the City of Boston and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Coalitions of leaders led by the Rev. Jeffrey Brown and others were also working to address youth violence within the Black community.
Plus, Black Bostonians, dissatisfied with City Hall’s predominantly white makeup, rallied to register Black voters and amped up its critiques of those in leadership, said Charlotte M. Nelson, a program coordinator for Northeastern University’s School of Law. Nelson, a former president of the NAACP New England Area Conference, worked with Feaster and dozens to coordinate the ’82 convention.
‘If you want to pick a city, you want to pick a city that’s going to bring attention, and that it did.’
Joseph D. Feaster Jr., former president of the NAACP’s Boston chapter
Then-Mayor Kevin White pledged to confront racism “directly and aggressively” but was facing criticism for not speaking out enough about attacks on Black Bostonians, among other issues.
“There was still a lot of back and forth between Kevin White and Black citizens on employment, especially on employing Black people in key decision-making roles,” she said.
The heightened tensions at the time emboldened the Black community, which understood that the city was under a national spotlight.
“That convinced the national [NAACP] leadership that if you want to pick a city, you want to pick a city that’s going to bring attention, and that it did,” Feaster said of the decision to name Boston the 1982 host. The goal wasn’t just to draw attention to the horrors Black Bostonians were facing, but also to their strength and action to stand up for their rights.
The two-page cover for 1979 program for the NAACP Boston branch’s annual awards banquet, with a theme focused on youth.
The 1982 national convention program featured advertisements and promotions from various organizations, including Harvard University, which promoted its Black Women Oral History Project, which it launched in 1976. Among other famous Black women professionals, the ad featured Melnea Cass, the beloved Boston-based civil rights advocate, who served as the NAACP Boston branch’s president in the 1960s.
The cover of the 1982 NAACP national convention program.
The 1981 NAACP Boston annual award banquet program featured a number of prominent Black Bostonians who were awarded for their excellence and service in various fields. One of them was Elma Lewis, the Boston arts educator, who won an award for arts and sciences. Lewis opened the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts in Roxbury in 1950 before an arson forced the school to shutter in 1986, and also founded the National Center of Afro-American Artists in 1968. She was also one of the founders of Metco, the voluntary school integration program.
The cover of the May-June 1982 issue of EPOCH Magazine looked ahead to the NAACP’s national convention in Boston, featuring prominent members of the group’s leadership.
A spread in the May-June 1982 issue of EPOCH Magazine looked ahead to the 1982 NAACP national convention in Boston, featuring an interview with Boston branch president Joseph D. Feaster Jr.
Joseph D. Feaster Jr., president of the NAACP’s Boston branch, welcomed visitors in the 1982 national convention program. “Despite the numerous accounts of racial violence and strife which have plagued Boston over the past few years, we assure you that your stay here will be rewarding and a memorable one,” Feaster wrote.
A photo spread of Black Boston children in the 1979 program for the NAACP Boston branch’s annual awards banquet.
A photo of members of the Boston NAACP in the 1977 annual awards banquet program. Standing, from left to right: Kim Robinson, William J. Bryant, Charlotte M. Nelson, Davis C. Young, Jeanne Q. Tibbs, Grainger Browning Jr., and Le Ann V. Johnson. Seated, from left to right: Raymond Anderson, Valderia A. Moore, Leon T. Nelson, Bettye J. Robinson, and Frank Bispham.
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“Massachusetts and Boston in particular wanted to put on its best face, so we had the attention of the state government, the federal government, we had the attention of city government under Kevin White,” Feaster said. But at the end of the day, “the community was front and center of planning for this convention, from a local perspective.”
The priorities for that year’s convention were wide-ranging. The NAACP had always focused on education and student achievement, but segregation became a big topic, too, along with unemployment in the Black community and housing discrimination. The Boston chapter had also been challenging hiring practices in Boston police and fire departments.
This time around, the hot-button issues of today — such as abortion, affirmative action, and public education curriculums around race — will drive the convention, but subjects such as housing and economic inequality will be a mainstay.
“One hundred and fourteen years [after the NAACP’s founding], and we’re still dealing with the same inequities,” Nelson said. “Isn’t that something?”
Yet, Nelson believes that attendees of this week’s convention will see a new Boston. For starters, it now has a Seaport District. South Boston isn’t a place for Black people to avoid any more. And now it has The Embrace sculpture, which represents a shift in the city’s narrative of its own history.
But all those changes haven’t been for the best, Nelson said. For example, a lot of the Black-owned establishments in Roxbury and the South End — places ’82 convention planners listed in travel guides for visiting delegates — are long gone, with few replacements.
“There’s all those boarded-up buildings smack dab in the middle of Nubian Square when you’ve got all this glimmering stuff happening in the Seaport,” Nelson said. “Where’s the equity?”
Today, there is still work to be done, particularly around wealth disparity, housing segregation, and inequities in education, and the Boston NAACP is here once again, playing an important role.
“We’re still going strong, an organization started in 1911, and we’re still going to be here,” Feaster said. “Our mission is the same, and those pillars — education, housing, employment — those are the things the NAACP is going to be fighting for, against discrimination in any form that presents itself.”
Sahar Fatima can be reached at sahar.fatima@globe.com Follow her on Twitter @sahar_fatima. Milton J. Valencia can be reached at milton.valencia@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @miltonvalencia and on Instagram @miltonvalencia617. Tiana Woodard is a Report for America corps member covering Black neighborhoods. She can be reached at tiana.woodard@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @tianarochon.
SMALL ACTS, BIG IMPACTS: A DAY OF SERVICE From Saturday to Monday, give back to the community with the Discovery Museum’s “Day of Service” in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day’s designation as a National Day of Service. Donate or collect supplies for the Welcome Basket drive, and make a warm welcome card in support of the Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Center. Donations for these care packages — including cleaning and laundry supplies, hygiene products, infant care items, and winter clothing — will go to immigrant or refugee families in need of essential daily items. Free admission. Jan. 18-20, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., 177 Main St., Acton. discoveryacton.org
MLK DAY CONCERT — VOTING WITH PURPOSE AND WITHOUT FEAR On Sunday, the Association of Black Citizens of Lexington is hosting a concert in honor of MLK Jr. Day and in celebration of the lives of Martin Luther King Jr. and activist Fannie Lou Hamer. Both civil rights leaders were integral in the fight for equal voting rights and access to ballots for all voters. Enjoy songs of spirituality and freedom — performed by Brother Dennis and Friends — as an homage to the songs that motivated those at the Meredith March Against Fear in 1966 and many other civil rights activists of the 1960s. Tickets are $25. Jan. 19, 2 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Follen Church, 755 Mass. Ave., Lexington. eventbrite.com
EMBRACE HONORS MLK On Sunday, Embrace Boston hosts Embrace Honors MLK 2025, a formal evening of joy, music, and community. Leaders to be honored include former Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and first lady Lauren Baker, and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and first lady Diane Patrick. Hosts include Melisa Valdez, in-arena host for the Boston Celtics, and Latoyia Edwards, Emmy-winning anchor from NBC 10 Boston. DJ Envy, DJ Papadon, and the Berklee All Star Jazz Band are among the entertainers booked. Tickets are $450. Jan. 19. 6:30 p.m.-midnight. Big Night Live, 110 Causeway St. embraceboston.org
PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. CELEBRATION The Peabody Essex Museum will honor the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday with a variety of art installations. View the works of Bethany Collins (”America: A Hymnal”), David Boxer (”The Black Books”), and Alison Saar’s (”Weight)”. Starting at 11 a.m., join fluid acrylics artist Rahim Gray to learn the way he incorporates social justice and music in his work and to make pour art of your own. Free admission. Jan. 20, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 161 Essex St., Salem. pem.org
ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM — MLK JR. DAY OF SERVICE Visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Monday to stroll its galleries, hear storytellers, and participate in activities. Featured exhibits include performance artist Dzidzor’s soundscape “Riot: A Sermon of Anger, Dreams, and Love,” Crystal Bi’s “Dream Portal” hands-on installation, and a performance by Amanda Shea and musician Wylsner Bastien of “Why We Still Dream” at Calderwood Hall. Free admission. Jan. 20, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 Evans Way. gardnermuseum.org
CELEBRATE! WITH GEORGE RUSSELL JR. AND FRIENDS The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum hosts a Monday performance of some of Martin Luther King Jr.’s favorite songs by George Russell Jr. and Friends. The event is free to the public per the support of the Martin Richard Foundation and the Mass Cultural Council. Jan. 20, 10:30.-11:30 a.m. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Columbia Point. eventbrite.com
MFA BOSTON OPEN HOUSE, MLK DAY In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and the communal and artistic spirit of the holiday, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston will offer free admission Monday to any visitors with a Massachusetts ZIP code. Within the museum, view ArtSpark’s “Radical Heroes” program and make your own window-hanging at the “Stained Glass: Doves” station. The museum offers several other performances and talks; see the website for the schedule. Jan. 20. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave. mfa.org
BOSTON CHILDREN’S CHORUS — ROAD TO FREEDOM This year’s Boston Children’s Chorus MLK Day program educates about Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, two civil rights leaders who are often perceived as ideologically unaligned, though the interconnectedness between the two is more complex. The “Road to Freedom” program at Symphony Hall on Monday is designed to educate the Boston community on the similarities between the two activists, and the vital role both hold in shaping social movements of the past and present. $15-$75. Jan. 20, 4 p.m. Symphony Hall, 301 Mass. Ave. bso.org
ANNUAL MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. CELEBRATION Join the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras and the Boston community for a celebratory program of memorable performances on Monday. The two-hour program, presented in conjunction with the Museum of African American History, will include spiritual and cultural performances, spoken word and readings, and guest speakers. Free admission. Jan. 20. Starts at 1 p.m. Strand Theatre, 543 Columbia Road. eventbrite.com
Haley Clough can be reached at haley.clough@globe.com. Follow her on Instagram @hcloughjournalism.
A pair of division foes in the Eastern Conference meet up on Wednesday, Jan. 15 when the Boston Celtics travel to take on the Toronto Raptors at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
The game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on NBC Sports Boston. Fans looking to watch this NBA game can do so for free by using DirecTV Stream, which offers a free trial. You can also watch on FuboTV, which also offers a free trial and $30 off your first month, or SlingTV, which doesn’t offer a free trial but has promotional offers available.
The Celtics are looking for their first winning streak since they beat the Raptors, Timberwolves and Rockets consecutively to end December and start January. Boston enters this matchup at 28-11 while Toronto is 9-31 and winless in two previous matchups with the defending champions.
- WATCH THE GAME FOR FREE HERE
Who: Boston Celtics vs. Toronto Raptors
When: Wednesday, Jan. 15 at 7:30 p.m. EST
Where: Scotiabank Arena in Toronto
Stream: FuboTV; Sling; DirecTV Stream (free trial)
Betting: Check out our MA sports betting guide, where you can learn basic terminology, definitions and how to read odds for those interested in learning how to bet in Massachusetts.
What is FuboTV?
FuboTV is an internet television service that offers more than 200 channels across sports and entertainment including Paramount+ with SHOWTIME. From the UEFA Champions League to the WNBA to international tournaments ranging across sports, there’s plenty of options available on FuboTV, which offers a free trial and $30 off the first month for new customers.
What is DirecTV Stream?
DirecTV Stream offers practically everything DirecTV provides, except for a remote and a streaming device to connect to your television. Sign up now and get three free months of premium channels including MAX, Paramount+ with SHOWTIME and Starz.
What is SlingTV?
SlingTV offers a variety of live programing ranging from news and sports and starting as low as $20 a month for your first month. Subscribers also get a month of DVR Plus free if they sign up now. Choose from a variety of sports packages without long-term contracts and with easy cancelation.
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Court papers say ex-NBA player Jontay Porter laid out betting scheme in a text; 6th person arrested
By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A sixth person was charged Monday in the federal sports betting case involving ex-NBA player Jontay Porter, and authorities disclosed a text message Porter allegedly sent explaining how to cash in on his plans to bench himself in a January 2024 game.
The former Toronto Raptors center already has pleaded guilty in the criminal case and was banned from the NBA for life. He admitted that he agreed to withdraw early from games, claiming illness or injury, so that those in the know could win big by betting on him to underperform expectations.
Although the new developments don’t affect the legal case against Porter, they put the scheme in what a court document says were his own words.
“Hit unders for the big numbers,” Porter wrote to an alleged conspirator on Jan. 26, 2024, according to a court complaint against yet another alleged schemer, Shane Hennen. He was arrested Sunday at the Las Vegas airport while boarding a flight to Panama.
“No blocks no steals. I’m going to play first 2-3 minute stint off the bench then when I get subbed out tell them my eye killing me again,” Porter wrote, according to the complaint. It identifies him only as “NBA Player 1” but makes clear through references — such as the details of his guilty plea last year — that it’s Porter.
He had scratched an eye during a game on Jan. 22, 2024, keeping conspirators in the loop by text even from the arena, according to the complaint. But he wasn’t on the injured list when the Raptors faced the LA Clippers four days later.
Porter ultimately played about 4 1/2 minutes in that game before saying he had aggravated the eye problem. Then he pulled out of a March 20 game against the Sacramento Kings after less than three minutes, saying he felt ill. His performance in both games fell well below what sportsbooks had anticipated.
Porter told a court in July that he got involved in the plot to try to clear his own gambling debts. He’s set to be sentenced in May. He could face anything from no jail time to 20 years behind bars; prosecutors have estimated his sentence at about 3 1/2 to four years in prison.
A message was sent to his lawyer Monday to seek comment on the developments.
Hennen was released without bail after his arraignment Monday in Las Vegas on charges including wire fraud conspiracy. The court complaint alleges that he placed bets through proxies after co-conspirators alerted him to Porter’s plans for the Jan. 26 game, and that he also got a heads-up about the March 20 game and likely told other gamblers about it.
A message seeking comment was sent to his attorney.
Besides Hennen and Porter, four other people also have been charged to date. Two have pleaded guilty, a third has pleaded not guilty, and the fourth hasn’t entered a plea.
The complaint against Hennen alleges there were still more conspirators involved. It’s unclear whether more people may yet be arrested.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
Boston, MA
Constantine Manos, photographer for landmark ‘Where’s Boston?’ exhibit, dies at 90 – The Boston Globe
Among Mr. Manos’s books were “A Greek Portfolio” (1972; updated 1999), “Bostonians” (1975), “American Color” 1995) and ”American Color 2″ (2010). Mr. Manos’s work with color was notably expressive and influential.
“Color was a four-letter word in art photography,” the photographer Lou Jones, who worked with Mr. Manos on “Where’s Boston?,” said in a telephone interview. “But he was making wonderful, complex photographs with color, and that meant so much.”
Yet for all his formal skill, Mr. Manos always emphasized the human element in his work. “I am a people photographer and have always been interested in people,” he once said.
That interest extended beyond the photographs he took. He was a celebrated teacher. Among the students he taught in his photo workshops was Stella Johnson.
“He’d go through a hundred of my photographs,” she said in a telephone interview, “and maybe he’d like two. ‘No, no, no, no, yes, no.’ Costa really taught me how to see. I remember him looking at one picture and saying, “You were standing in the wrong spot.’ Something like that was invaluable to me as a young photographer.
“He was a very, very kind man, very generous. But he was very strict. ‘How could you do that?’ He was adored by his students and by his friends, absolutely. We were all lucky to have been in his orbit.”
Mr. Manos, who moved to Provincetown in 2008, lived in the South End for four decades. The South Carolina native’s association with the Boston area began when the Boston Symphony Orchestra hired him as a photographer at Tanglewood. He was 19. This led to Mr. Manos’s first book, “Portrait of a Symphony” (1961; updated 2000).
Constantine Manos was born in Columbia, S.C., on Oct. 12, 1934. His parents, Dimitri and Aphrodite (Vaporiotou) Manos, were Greek immigrants. They ran a café in the city’s Black section. That experience gave Mr. Manos a sympathy for marginalized people that would stay with him throughout his life. As a student at the University of South Carolina, he wrote editorials in the school paper opposing segregation. Later, he would do extensive work chronicling the LGBTQ+ community with his camera.
Mr. Manos became interested in photography at 13, joining the school camera club and building a darkroom in his parents’ basement. After graduating from college, Mr. Manos did two years of Army service in Germany, working as a photographer for Stars and Stripes. He joined Magnum in 1963. This had special meaning for him. Mr. Manos’s chief inspiration as a young photographer had been Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of Magnum’s founders. He was such an admirer he made a point of using the same equipment that Cartier-Bresson did.
That same year, Mr. Manos entered a seafood restaurant in Rome that was around the corner from the Pantheon. Prodanou, his future husband, was dining with friends. Noticing Mr. Manos, he gestured to him. “Would you join us for coffee?” The couple spent the next 61 years together, marrying in 2011.
Mr. Manos lived in Greece for three years, which led to “A Greek Portfolio.” He undertook a very different project in the Athens of America. Part of the city’s Bicentennial tribute, “Where’s Boston?” was a slice-of-many-lives view of contemporary Boston.
Located in a red-white-and-blue striped pavilion at the Prudential Center, it became a local sensation. The installation involved 42 computerized projectors and 3,097 color slides (most of them taken by Mr. Manos), shown on eight 10 feet by 10 feet screens. Outside the pavilion was a set of murals, consisting of 152 black-and-white photographs of Boston scenes, all shot by Mr. Manos.
“The most important thing I had to do was to keep my picture ideas simple,” he said in a 1975 Globe interview. “Viewers are treated to a veritable avalanche of color slides in exactly one hour’s time.”
In that same interview, he made an observation about his work generally. “I prefer to stay in close to my subjects. I let them see me and my camera and when they become bored they forget about me and then I get my best pictures.”
Among institutions that own Mr. Manos’s photographs are the Museum of Fine Arts; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the Library of Congress; and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
In addition to his husband, Mr. Manos leaves a sister, Irene Constantinides, of Atlanta, and a brother, Theofanis Manos, of Greenville, S.C.
A memorial service will be held later this year.
Mark Feeney can be reached at mark.feeney@globe.com.
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