Buses sit at the Park Square bus depot, formerly the Trailways Bus Terminal, in the 1970s. As Boston’s busing crisis unfolded, Harvard students confronted the city’s racial violence. | By Courtesy of WikiCommons
When William G. “Bill” Fletcher Jr. ’76 stepped foot on Harvard’s campus in 1972, he thought he had moved to a welcoming city.
He knew Boston was segregated, but described the city as having a “veneer” compared to others at the time. Within his first week at the College, the facade fell. Fletcher was just minutes away from the Yard when he heard someone yell a racist slur at him and tell him to “catch.”…