Kevin Hagan White (born September 25, 1929 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American politician best known as the longest-serving Mayor of Boston, a position he held from 1968 to 1983.
Early years
White was educated at Tabor Academy, Williams College (AB, 1952), Boston College Law School (LLB, 1955) and the Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration (now known as the John F. Kennedy School of Government). Prior to his term as Mayor of Boston, he served as Secretary of the Commonwealth from 1960–1967.
Early political life
White successfully ran for Mayor in 1967 on a populist platform that included support for rent control. One of his slogans was "When landlords raise rents, Kevin White raises hell." Rent control became the law in Boston in 1970.[1] White beat Louise Day Hicks who had taken a strong anti-desegregation position as a member of the Boston School Committee. Hicks' slogan was the coded "You know where I stand." White won by approximately 12,000 votes after he was endorsed by the Boston Globe, the paper's first political endorsement in decades.
Other political races
In 1970, White unsuccessfully ran for Governor of Massachusetts against Republican Frank Sargent. White's running mate was Michael Dukakis, who later challenged and defeated Sargent for the Governor's office in 1974.
In 1972, he was on the verge of the Democratic Party's vice-presidential nomination. After a number of better known politicians, including Senators Ted Kennedy and Gaylord Nelson, and Governor Reubin Askew, turned down the position, White briefly became the front-runner for the post. However, when Kennedy, famed economist John Kenneth Galbraith and others in the Massachusetts delegation voiced their opposition to White's nomination, the offer was withdrawn. Presidential nominee Senator George McGovern went on to select Senator Thomas Eagleton, who was later embroiled in a controversy over his failue to disclose having received electric shock therapy for depression, and finally former Chicago School Board President and later Ambassador R. Sargent Shriver.
Boston in the 1970's
The 1970's were a turbulent time for Boston. In 1974, Judge Arthur J. Garrity found that the Boston School Committee had followed a practice of segregating the city's public schools by race, including building new schools in districts tailored to white constituents. As a remedy, Garrity ordered the city's schools desegregated, leading to a system of desegregation busing. The desegregation did not go peacefully, and violence was not uncommon. In one famous incident during a demonstration outside Boston City Hall, a black attorney was attacked with an American flag.
White also worked for the revitalization of Boston's downtown. In 1976, he achieved perhaps his biggest success in that area with the re-opening of Quincy Market.
Health
In 1970, during his campaign for governor, White underwent surgery that removed two-thirds of his stomach. In 2001, the since-retired White suffered a heart attack which left him with a pacemaker. In his advanced age, he has lost hearing in his right ear and is suffering from Alzheimer's disease [2].
Quote
White made this statement in light of Boston's finances:
- It's not Camelot, but it's not Cleveland, either.
Throughout the 1970s, Cleveland was the long-standing butt of jokes and by the early 1980s, city residents were getting fed up. Former Cleveland Mayor and current Junior U.S. Ohio Senator, George Voinovich complained about White's controversial statement. He responded by saying that Boston had survived facetious remarks from a wide range of jokesters, from Mark Twain to Johnny Carson. "I am sure Cleveland will also," he said.
External links and references
- "The loner in winter: former mayor Kevin White is being robbed by Alzheimer's-- but bolstered by a dear friend." The Boston Globe, June 20, 2005, By Jack Thomas