Tale of Two Cities

More than a century ago, Boston was a sternly self-righteous center of abolitionist sentiment, while Montgomery, Ala., was the capital of the Confederacy. After World War II, Bostonians played a major role in carrying the crusade for civil rights to the South, and Montgomery remained one of the obdurate centers of resistance.

Thus there is a particularly bitter irony in the contrast between two recent events involving the two cities. Last month the Federal Government decided that Montgomery was so peaceful that the guards could be safely removed from the home of U.S. District Judge Frank M. Johnson. Armed men have been standing watch nightly since 1956, when two fiery crosses were burned on John son's lawn, apparently in protest against his liberal decisions on civil rights.

While all was calm in Montgomery, Boston was still reeling from angry demonstrations against the busing of black children to schools in white neighborhoods. In the city that had done so much to advance the cause of civil rights, a group of Ku Klux Klan members arrived last week to stir up more trouble, as did a contingent of neo-Nazi white supremacists from Virginia.

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