Initiatives to Remember Our History
- We led the effort that got a commemorative panel erected about the metropolitan wide campaign to stop the 10 lane Inner Belt Highway from being built through Boston, Cambridge, Somerville.
This panel is outside of Roxbury Crossing MBTA Station at the corner of Columbus Avenue and Tremont Street, opposite Roxbury Community College.
We worked with a committee of veterans of this campaign who wrote the content of the panel which recognizes 100 mostly unsung neighborhood leaders who led this campaign.
- Bringing forth the history of political persecution of the popular song "Charlie on the MTA".
This song is the inspiration for the name and logo for the MBTA's Charlie Card fare cards.
However, few knew how and why the song's lyrics were changed because of political persecution during the 1950's.
Through our efforts, the MBTA recognized this history on its website with this explanation written by our colleagues Jim Vrabel and Peter Dreier, and put this same wording on 5 signs placed in different MBTA stations including Park Street and Government Center.
See the story and text of the song at
http://www.mbta.com/about_the_mbta/history/?id=19582
- We are currently working for erection of panel to commemorate the divisions in Boston from the 1974 federal court decision on desegregation and busing and lessons learned.