The Nephews of Boston Say No

AT first glance, Louis Nephew and his family might appear to be distant Boston relatives of All in the Family's Archie Bunker. A large American flag waves proudly above the small grass and macadam front yard, and during the just completed mayoral campaign, the flagpole was also decorated with a poster boosting Louise Day Hicks, the antibusing candidate. More important, the Nephews recently refused to send their children to a school outside their Dorchester neighborhood, assigned to them under Boston's busing plan. But inside 12 Edson Street the view is somewhat different, and the Nephews seem less like a caricature.

One of the main reasons they chose the Edson Street house was its location. They and their seven children would be near a Catholic church and the Fifield elementary school, which is only two blocks away. When the Nephews bought their home seven years ago, Dorchester was an all-white neighborhood; now black families are moving in and the Nephews worry about their investment and their children. Last September, when they were told that to further integration two of their daughters, Patrice and Susan, would have to go to fifth grade at the new Lee school, half a mile away--the other five children were not affected--they were confused, angry and defiant. "It is our God-given right to send our children to whatever school we want," says Mrs. Nephew.

Her opposition was not caused by bigotry--Fifield was already 30% to 40% black--nor was it based on principle alone. "It's dangerous enough for my kids to walk to Fifield just two blocks away," she maintains. "I didn't see why they should travel half a mile into a district where there's even more crime." Furthermore, she adds, the girls had made friends at Fifield, and were looking forward to being taught by a favorite teacher.

When the school transfer was ordered, Nephew, an IBM programmer, and some friends asked the pastor of St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Church for help. Father Leonard Burke organized the parents of about 200 children, most of whom continued to attend Fifield in defiance of the edict; school officials allowed them in the classrooms, though the children were not registered for credit. Picket lines were set up around the homes of school committeemen who had voted for the busing plan.

The parents' activities, coupled with an approaching school-committee election, produced results--and a blow to desegregation in Boston. In early October the school committee reversed busing plans throughout the city in the presence of an angry crowd of parents. The Nephews found personal vindication in the reversal. "We're called second-class citizens," Jeannette Nephew observes. "But we proved we're second to nobody in city hall."

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