Jean McGuire

Jean McGuire was the first female African American to gain a seat on the Boston School Committee at Large, in 1981 during the Boston busing desegregation era. She also served as the executive director of the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO, Inc.) since 1973 . She grew up in Massachusetts and lived in Washington, D.C. during the 1930s and 1940s, when schools were mostly segregated and unequal.

Jean McGuire became the fourth Executive Director of METCO (1973). In this position, she has helped provide educational opportunities to numerous urban school children. This achievement was made possible by the fact that the METCO program provides direct and easier access to quality education. This program offers learning opportunities to 190 schools in the state of Massachusetts and tries to aid in the desegregation of the education system that exists in the country .

McGuire became the first African American woman appointed to the Boston School Committee (1981). She held the position on the School Committee for ten years up to the point when the committee was disbanded. Additionally, she has served as a board member on various associations including: The Children's Museum, Community Change, Inc., Encampment for Citizenship, Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus and the Black Educators Alliance of MA (BEAM).

In 2004, Jean McGuire won the humanitarian award of the year, on behalf of working for equal education opportunities among children. Furthermore, in 2012, McGuire became the recipient of the Community Change’s 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in the education system and segregated communities.

Jean McGuire struggled during the '60s with the education system. She fought for more well-trained and, preferably, black teachers for the black community. She pointed out that the State College at Boston had a very low number of black students, despite the fact that it is located in Roxbury and had very reasonable tuition.

A dedicated activist, in 1973, McGuire initiated and became head of METCO, one of the largest and oldest segregation/desegregation non-profit organizations in Massachusetts. McGuire increased awareness of the importance of giving children the best education possible despite their circumstances. She is a believer in the idea that children are the leaders of tomorrow, and it is this leadership that needs to be nurtured carefully and with education.

The METCO program began as a grass-roots program in 1966 with funding from the Carnegie Foundation. The program enabled more than 3,300 African American children from Boston and Springfield to attend suburban schools in such towns as Arlington, Braintree, Brookline, Lexington, Lincoln, Newton and Wellesley. METCO's goals included improving instructive opportunities for urban students, decreasing the racial separation of suburban schools, and diminishing isolation and de facto segregation of schools. The program had its beginnings in 1963 and 1964 when some African American parents began boycotting Boston schools for failing to integrate. In April 1965, the Advisory Committee on Racial Imbalance and Education appointed by the Massachusetts State Education Coordinator released a report detailing racial division in Boston's public schools. Among its findings: over half of the city's African American students attended 28 schools which were at least 80% black. To address this issue of de facto segregation of Boston public schools, the report recommended that African American students be bused from the city into surrounding suburbs that were predominantly white. Though the Boston School Committee rejected the report, the Massachusetts Racial Imbalance Act was passed in 1965. During that period, a group of African-American parents launched “Operation Exodus,” to transport their children from overcrowded schools to better-resourced city schoolsAfter it incorporation in 1966, METCO became a vehicle for meeting the goals of the Massachusetts Racial Imbalance Act, which promotes racial and ethnic diversity in public schools.

It did not take long for the program to grow in popularity as the state began to provide grants to participating suburban districts. While METCO enjoyed early success as a peaceful, voluntary approach to desegregating Boston's public schools, it has been largely overshadowed by the violent busing struggle that occurred in Boston in the mid-1970s.

As METCO has grown, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education regulates the METCO award program. The department's essential part is to guarantee that the METCO salary is regulated effectively and that school areas get financing. The department likewise gives general oversight regarding strategy issues. Some of these approaches include admission and position, specialized curriculum, and scholarly and disciplinary desires. The department serves as the essential conductor of data with respect to the project to the board of education, the legislature, the media, and people in general.

McGuire was interviewed about her activism and work for METCO in episode thirteen, "The Keys to the Kingdom," of the award-winning documentary, Eyes on the Prize, which weaves together personal recollections and interviews, photographs, television footage, and archival materials to recount the fight to end segregation in the United States.

“We all have the ability to do something good,” McGuire said, “we just need the proper resources to help make our goals and abilities possible.”