Born from Resistance: The Advent School's Roots in Boston's Segregation Struggle
This month, the Boston Globe published articles acknowledging the city's painful legacy of school segregation and busing, which sees its 50th anniversary this year.
A grassroots group of Boston citizens founded The Advent School in response to the segregation in Boston Public Schools. In this article, we share the history of the school's inspiration and legacy.
After two years of thoughtful planning, the Advent School was founded by a group of forward-thinking community leaders in 1961. Dr. Mona C. Hull was the visionary and driving force behind the Advent School. Dr. Hull, her husband Gordon F. Hull, and their five children lived abroad for many years in the 1950s before returning to New England. After a brief stint in Hanover, New Hampshire, the Hull family moved to Concord, Massachusetts.
The Hull family attended church at The Church of The Advent, and Mona Hull worked closely with Mayor Kevin White to ensure that migrant workers had access to healthcare in Boston. Dr. Hull was an educator interested in public health and policy and was aware of the issues impacting her communities.
During a time of de facto segregation in Boston’s public schools, Hull envisioned a fully integrated neighborhood school. In the years that followed the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional, school desegregation was a hot-button issue covered frequently in local newspapers. Hull gathered many articles and letters to the editor written from the position of opposing school desegregation. She filed these accounts away in folders. These documents served as inspiration for Hull. She firmly believed that all children should have access to quality education and that learning alongside peers from different backgrounds was the most beneficial way for children to learn.
Hull also believed that teaching children in an integrated school was the best way to fight back against racist beliefs and ensure that the next generation unlearned the prevailing racist frameworks of prior generations. With the Church of The Advent as its sponsor, The Advent School opened its doors on September 14, 1961, and welcomed 17 children in grades one and two. Mona Hull was the Director, and Jeanne Morrison was the sole teacher. Tuition was $475 for first grade and $525 for second grade, with an additional $50 fee for snacks and supplies for each child.
The school population steadily grew, and by the 1963-64 school year, The Advent School was open to children in grades First through Sixth. Hull announced that she would depart from The Advent School for the 1965-66 school year to begin another project called The New School for Children. Reverend Robert C. Day was selected as Hull’s replacement.
In April of 1965, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. led a march from Lower Roxbury down Columbus Avenue to Boston Common to protest racial injustice in schools and housing in Boston. This was the first Civil Rights March in the Northeast. Three days later, the Racial Imbalance Act of 1965 became law. The law made segregation in Massachusetts’ public schools illegal. It was the first law of its kind in the United States, and it forced the Boston School Committee, chaired by Louise Day Hicks, vocal anti-desegregationist, to create a plan for desegregation in advance of the 1966-67 school year or face defunding. You can learn more about the history of Boston school desegregation in this comprehensive timeline.
The Racial Imbalance Act required a regular census of Boston Public Schools. The act states that “racial imbalance shall be deemed to exist when the percent of nonwhite students in any public school is in excess of fifty percent of the total number of students in such school.” (Source) The first census in October 1965 found 46 unbalanced schools, and the number became progressively more unbalanced yearly through October 1972, with a high of 67 unbalanced schools.
As the Boston Public Schools were experiencing tumult, Father Day, as he was affectionately known on campus, became a beloved fixture of The Advent School. He acted as Head of School for thirty years, from 1965 to 1995. The growing school community quickly outgrew the space in the Parish House of the Church of the Advent. The Board of Trustees approved the purchase of the 15-17 Brimmer Street buildings in 1969, and after three years of updates to the building, the 1972-73 school year was the first school year in our new, historic home.
In 1973 and 1974, tensions rose, and tumults were building as the implementation of busing in Boston began in response to the results of the Racial Imbalance Act censuses to integrate Boston Public Schools to end de facto segregation. At this time, The Advent School had been a fully integrated school for over 12 years. Anti-busing protests continued through 1976 and led to a large group of white families leaving the city in what is now known as “white flight.”
The Advent School was committed to staying in the city with a student body that represented the diversity of the City of Boston despite the mass exodus—Reverend Day led the school until 1995 when Nancy Harris Frohlich was appointed Head of School. Nancy led the school from 1995 to 2013, introduced the Reggio-Emilia approach, and started the Early Childhood Center (ECC), which will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2024.
Nicole A. DuFauchard P‘20 was appointed Head of School upon Harris Frohlich’s departure. Nicole is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion and has continued to strengthen The Advent School’s social justice curriculum,
The Advent School was ahead of its time with our commitment to an integrated and inclusive learning environment focused on community. We are proud of our legacy, and our commitment to justice and equity only strengthens as we reflect on our impactful past.
Continued Reading
Broken Promises, Unfulfilled Hope: Boston Busing at 50 in the Boston Globe
Boston Busing at 50 at GBH
Beyond Busing: Boston School Desegregation Archival Resources at Northeastern
