Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr.

Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr. (June 20, 1920 – September 16, 1999) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts notable for issuing the 1974 order in Morgan v. Hennigan which mandated that Boston schools be desegregated by means of busing.

Education and career

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Garrity graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a Bachelor of Arts in 1941. He was then a sergeant in the United States Army during World War II, from 1943-45. He then earned his Bachelor of Laws from Harvard Law School in 1946, and served as a law clerk to Francis Ford of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts from 1946 to 1947.

Garrity entered private practice in Boston and Worcester from 1947 to 1948. He was an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts from 1948 to 1950, lecturing in federal jurisdiction and procedure at Boston College Law School from 1950 to 1951. He was in private practice in Boston from 1951 to 1961. He was the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts from 1961 to 1966.

Federal judicial service

Garrity was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson on May 23, 1966, to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, to a new seat authorized by 75 Stat. 80. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 24, 1966, and received his commission on June 24, 1966. He assumed senior status on December 1, 1985.

Boston school busing case

As a federal judge, Garrity was at the center of a contentious battle over desegregation busing in Boston from the 1970s to the 1980s. He found a recurring pattern of racial discrimination in the operation of the Boston public schools in a 1974 ruling. His ruling found the schools were unconstitutionally segregated.

An obituary in the New York Times noted that Opposition to desegregation exploded in some areas, particularly the largely Irish Catholic enclaves of Charlestown and South Boston, and spilled over into racial violence. Garrity became the target of death threats and at least two attempts on his life. He remained under guard 24 hours a day from 1974-78. He was scorned and snubbed by many; his name appeared in profane city graffiti; he was hanged in effigy, and demonstrators came to his home.