June 21, 2024 will mark the 50th anniversary of Judge Arthur Garrity’s ruling in Morgan v. Hennigan (379 F. Supp 410), a case that brought the national struggle for civil rights to the streets of the city of Boston. In 1972, the Boston chapter of the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit against the Boston School Committee on behalf of 14 Black parents and 44 children. Tallulah Morgan headed the list of plaintiffs, and James Hennigan, then chair of the School Committee, was the main defendant. 

Morgan v. Hennigan was a landmark civil rights decision that found that the Boston School Committee intentionally discriminated against Black students, created a racially segregated school system, and consigned Black students to inferior schools and an inferior education. The ruling was a historic event, in the tradition of significant civil rights cases that came before and after, and is part of the nation’s progress in the long arc of courtroom justice.

The Foley Hoag Foundation’s roots trace back to the Morgan case, in which Foley Hoag successfully represented the plaintiffs pro bono. Using fees awarded to the firm, the partners of Foley Hoag established the Foley Hoag Foundation in 1980. Since 1981, the Foundation has awarded more than $3,800,000 in grants to over 475 organizations.

In commemmoration of this decision, we will host programming in 2024 to examine the case and the issues that it raised, many of which remain very relevant today.

Together with key players from this movement, we will examine the issues that were raised in the litigation, the role the case has played in social justice efforts before and since, and the connections between the case and today’s continuing work in this area. We hope these efforts will bring to all a greater awareness of the importance of the case and why the issues that it raises continue to be important today.