"The Soiling of Old Glory" locale, Then and Now

The best part of Boston, for me, is definitely the history.  And some of the most interesting historical events occured quite recently in the scheme of things - well after the American Revolution, during which Boston played it's most well-known historical role.  I was recently reading up on the anti-busing moving in the 1970's, and perhaps nowhere did the racial and class tensions play out more violently than in the streets and schools of the "Cradle of Liberty."

The best known image depicting that time of unrest is without a doubt Stanley Foreman's "The Soiling of Old Glory," which he snapped during an anti-busing protest at Boston's City Hall Plaza on April 5, 1976. 



Ted Landsmark was an African-American attorney who found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time, when a few angry white protestors descended on him.  The photo depicts Landsmark being constrained by one man, while high school student Joseph Rakes winds up to skewer Landsmark with a flag pole flying the American flag.  Others look on, apparently doing nothing, but you get the impression that this whole scuffle happened in a matter of seconds before anyone uninvolved had a chance to react.  I do not believe Landsmark was actually struck with the flagpole like this, but he was beaten nonetheless and treated at a hospital for his wounds.  This photo won a Pulitzer Prize in 1977.




This photo, taken with my cell phone, shows the exact same location in September 2008.  Note the brick building in the background - that is the Old State House, and is also visible in the 1976 photo.  Not too much has changed in this view, aside from the two newer skyscrapers looming further in the background.  The man in the light-colored shirt walking in the center is incidentally another black man casually going about his business.  Luckily, he suffered no beatings this day in 2008. 

I found it hard to believe that such racially-motivated violence could have occured in 'liberal,' 'tolerant,' 'cosmopolitan' Boston only 32 years ago.

I also drew a connection between Foreman's 1976 photo with Paul Revere's engraving of the 1770 Boston Massacre.  Both are striking visual depictions of violence that served to raise awareness (and excacerbate tensions) around America.  And beyond that, the two pictures (separated by over 200 years) show the same Old State House in the background.  In 1770, it was the seat of the British Government in Massachusetts.  In 1976, and in 2008, it remains a largely unchanged reminder of our colonial past, and of how much Boston has changed, with skyscrapers rising dozens of stories above the Old State House, and trains running beneath it.