Kevin White (politician) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Kevin White
White circa 1975
Mayor of Boston
In office January 1, 1968 – January 2, 1984
Preceded by	John F. Collins
Succeeded by	Raymond Flynn
23rd Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
In office January 5, 1961 – December 20, 1967
Governor	John Volpe Endicott Peabody John Volpe
Preceded by	Joseph D. Ward
Succeeded by	John Davoren
Personal details
Born	Kevin Hagan White (1929-09-25)September 25, 1929 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	January 27, 2012(2012-01-27) (aged 82) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Kathryn Galvin ​ (m. 1956)​
Parent	Joseph C. White (father)
Relatives	Henry E. Hagan (grandfather) William J. Galvin (father-in-law)
Education	Williams College (AB) Boston College (LLB) Harvard University

Kevin Hagan White (born September 25, 1929 – died January 27, 2012) was an American politician. He is best known for being the Mayor of Boston for four terms, from 1968 to 1984. He was first elected mayor when he was 38 years old.

During his time as mayor, Boston faced big challenges, especially with racial issues in the late 1960s and 1970s. This included the start of school desegregation, which involved court-ordered busing of students. White won his first mayoral election in 1967 against Louise Day Hicks, who was against busing and desegregation. Before becoming mayor, he was elected Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1960 at age 31.

White is also remembered for making Boston's waterfront, downtown, and financial areas much better. He helped turn Quincy Market into a popular spot for both locals and tourists. His time as mayor also faced investigations into corruption, which led to many city employees and business people being found guilty. White himself was never charged with any wrongdoing.

Family and Early Life

Kevin H. White was born in the Jamaica Plain part of Boston on September 25, 1929. His father, Joseph C. White, and his mother's father, Henry E. Hagan, both served as president of the Boston City Council. His father was also a state lawmaker.

Kevin White married Kathryn Galvin in 1956. Her father, William J. Galvin, was also a former Boston City Council president.

White went to Tabor Academy, Massachusetts, Williams College, Boston College Law School, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Serving the State

White was first elected as Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1960 when he was 31. This was a statewide job. He won the Democratic Party's nomination with help from his father and father-in-law. He then won the main election against Edward W. Brooke, who later became a U.S. Senator.

White was re-elected to this job two more times, in 1962 and 1964, for two-year terms. In 1966, he was re-elected for a four-year term. He left this job in December 1967 after he won the election to become Mayor of Boston.

Mayor of Boston

White successfully ran for mayor in 1967. He won his first election with support from Italian, liberal, and Black voters. He promised to fight for rent control, saying, "When landlords raise rents, Kevin White raises hell." Rent control was put in place in Boston in 1970.

White took over from Mayor John F. Collins. Collins had started projects like building the new Boston City Hall. This work helped set the stage for White's later efforts to rebuild and improve Boston's downtown and waterfront areas.

Mayoral Elections

The 1967 Boston mayoral election had many candidates. Kevin White came in second in the first round of voting. The top candidate was Louise Day Hicks, a member of the Boston School Board. She was strongly against busing students to desegregate schools.

In the final election, White narrowly defeated Hicks. Her campaign slogan was "You know where I stand," which meant she was against desegregation. The Boston Globe newspaper, which usually stayed neutral, supported White because of the strong feelings in the campaign. White won with 53.25 percent of the votes.

White won a second term in the 1971 mayoral election, again defeating Hicks by a larger number of votes. In the 1975 mayoral election, White barely won against State Senator Joe Timilty. This election happened the year after court-ordered school desegregation and busing began. The 1979 mayoral election was also a close race against Timilty. White decided not to run for mayor again in 1983.

City Government and Leadership

When Mayor White first started, his team included people from many different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Many of these staff members later became important leaders themselves.

Early in his time as mayor, White set up "Little City Halls" in different neighborhoods. These offices helped local people, including minorities, deal with city government more easily. However, after winning a very close election in 1975 during the school busing crisis, he closed these offices. He then brought power back to Boston City Hall.

Keeping Peace After Martin Luther King Jr.'s Death

Just four months after White became mayor, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. This caused unrest in the Roxbury area of Boston that evening. However, the disturbances did not spread to other parts of the city.

The next day, 5,000 people marched in Boston to honor King. That same evening, James Brown had a concert scheduled at Boston Garden. White's police chief was worried about letting 15,000 people gather so close to downtown. White first thought about canceling the concert. But Tom Atkins, a local NAACP leader, warned that canceling the show could cause riots.

Atkins and White's staff convinced White to let the concert go on. They also persuaded James Brown and Boston's public television station, WGBH-TV, to broadcast the concert live. The White administration asked community leaders to help keep the peace and encouraged people to stay home and watch the concert on TV.

Mayor White even went on stage with James Brown. He asked the audience and everyone watching at home to remember King's message of peace.

So all I ask you tonight is this: to let us look at each other, here in the Garden and back at home, and pledge that no matter what any other community might do, we in Boston will honor Dr. King in peace. — Kevin White from the stage of Boston Garden

WGBH re-broadcast the concert twice more that night, and people seemed to stay home to watch it. While many cities across the U.S. had riots and fires after King's death, Boston was spared from widespread problems.

School Desegregation Crisis

In 1965, Massachusetts passed the "Racial Imbalance Act." This law was the first of its kind in the U.S. It said that school districts had to desegregate, or they would lose state funding. Many people in Boston, especially in working-class areas like South Boston, and the Boston School Committee, were against this law.

For many years, leaders in Boston, including the mayor, city council, and school committee, did not take strong action to address racial issues in schools. This meant that the city did not move to treat minorities fairly in the school system until a federal court ordered it to do so. The Boston School Committee was elected separately and was not controlled by Mayor White. This caused frustration for White, as the committee had policies that led to segregation in Boston schools.

In 1972, the Boston NAACP filed a lawsuit called Morgan v. Hennigan. On June 21, 1974, Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. ruled that the Boston School Committee had intentionally segregated the city's public schools by race. For example, they built new classrooms in crowded white schools instead of using empty seats in schools with many minority students.

To fix this, Judge Garrity ordered the city's schools to desegregate. This led to a system of desegregation busing, where students were bused to different schools to create a mix of races. The plan required thousands of students to be bused starting in September 1974.

The desegregation plan and busing were met with strong protests. There were months of violence related to race, with attacks at City Hall and at high schools. Protesters in some white neighborhoods threw stones at school buses carrying Black children. Mayor White ordered police to escort the buses and worked with state officials to bring in state police to keep order. In October 1974, the Massachusetts National Guard was sent to Boston to help maintain peace in schools.

A famous photo from 1976, called The Soiling of Old Glory, showed a white teenager attacking a Black lawyer with an American flag during a protest outside Boston City Hall.

The Rolling Stones Concert

In 1972, Mayor White made headlines because of The Rolling Stones. Members of the band were arrested in Rhode Island just before a concert in Boston Garden. That evening, a riot was happening in Boston's South End, and White needed to move police officers from the Garden to deal with it.

White was worried that if the band didn't play, the 15,000 concertgoers would cause unrest. He convinced the Rhode Island authorities to release the band members into his care. This allowed the band to play their scheduled concert in Boston. White then went on stage before the fans and asked them to keep the peace. His actions helped him gain support from young voters and parents of teens in his re-election campaign.

Making Downtown Boston Better

Mayor White worked hard to improve Boston's downtown areas. He made the waterfront more accessible to the public and oversaw a building boom in the financial district. His administration was very important in renovating Quincy Market, which reopened in 1976. This project turned old warehouses into a lively "festival marketplace" that other cities later copied.

Investigations into City Hall

Before White's last term as mayor, prosecutors began investigating some city officials. In March 1981, it became known that city employees had been asked to donate money for a birthday party for the mayor's wife. These were personal gifts, not political donations, and they added up to $122,000. White canceled the event after public outcry and official questions.

In July 1981, William F. Weld became the U.S. District Attorney for Massachusetts. He expanded the investigations into White's administration and the White family's personal money. These investigations led to charges and convictions for more than 20 city employees and many business people. White himself was never charged with any wrongdoing. The investigations influenced White's decision not to run for re-election in 1983.

Other Political Efforts

In 1970, White ran for governor of Massachusetts. He won a tough primary election but lost the main election to Francis W. Sargent. White's running mate was Michael Dukakis, who later became governor. White's campaign for governor was paused for several days when he had emergency stomach surgery.

In 1972, during the Democratic National Convention, White was almost chosen as the Democratic Party's vice-presidential candidate. After several well-known politicians turned down the job, White briefly became the top choice. However, Senator George McGovern, the presidential nominee, chose Senator Thomas Eagleton instead. McGovern later said that choosing White would have been much better.

Later Life

After leaving the mayor's office in 1984, White became the director of the Institute for Political Communication at Boston University. He also worked as a professor there until 2002.

Questions about White's campaign money continued. In 1993, he agreed to return nearly $25,000 in leftover campaign funds that he had used for personal expenses. He did not admit any guilt.

On November 1, 2006, a statue of White was unveiled at Boston's Faneuil Hall. The bronze statue shows White walking. Behind the statue are metal footprints with quotes from White's mayoral inauguration speeches.

Kevin White died in Boston on January 27, 2012, at the age of 82.

Health

In 1970, during his campaign for governor, White had surgery that removed two-thirds of his stomach. In 2001, after he retired, White had a heart attack and received a pacemaker. In his later years, he lost hearing in his right ear and suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

Images for kids

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  White with predecessor as Mayor of Boston John F. Collins (1960–1968). White would succeed Collins following the 1967 mayoral election.

See also

• Timeline of Boston, 1960s–1980s