Prior to the implementation of Judge Garrity’s school desegregation plan, the controversy surrounding the issue of school desegregation found its way into the political arena. Many Boston residents were outraged that their children would no longer be able to attend local “neighborhood” schools and instead would be bused to unfamiliar areas of Boston. The issue was of great importance in South Boston, a largely white neighborhood of Boston, where voters would be taking part in the 1970 congressional elections to fill the seat vacated by John McCormack. Joe Moakley, a Democrat, ran for the open seat in 1970 but lost to another South Boston resident, Democrat Louise Day Hicks, in part because Hicks was a more outspoken critic of busing than Moakley. While Moakley expressed his dissatisfaction with the idea of forced busing, his stance was not as firm as South Boston residents would have liked. Moakley was able to win the 1972 congressional election by running as an Independent and therefore bypassing the need to beat Hicks in a Democratic primary. Once elected, Moakley switched back to the Democratic Party and went on to hold the sear for nearly thirty years. Many residents of South Boston never forgave him for his perceived failure to stop school desegregation in their community.
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