On Monday, Sen. Lydia Edwards ran the 126th Boston Marathon to raise money and support the Maverick Street Mothers Scholarship fund she established while on the Boston City Council.
Funded through the Edwards Empowerment Fund, the Maverick Street Mothers Scholarship is named in honor of the group of Eastie mothers that protested Logan Airport expansion in the 1960s and provides scholarships to working moms and dads so they can attend community college.
“Many parents involved in community activities, parent teacher associations, and social justice movements are struggling with fighting for their children’s future and education, and obtaining their own,” said Edwards. “The Maverick Street Mothers Scholarship benefits local parents who are active in their community and are looking to further their education. We are just under our goal of raising enough money to award three moms or dads a scholarship to community college.”
Edwards added, “The Maverick Street Mothers Scholarship pays tribute to the men and women who came before us and fought for our community. It honors parents who are doing the work today and allows us to invest in their leadership so that our community is stronger. The Maverick Street Mothers Scholarship that honors mothers and parents that have fought for our community of East Boston. These parents in many cases were organizers and proud activists fighting for social justice, community, open space and our neighborhood.”
Edwards said today, many parents involved in community activities, parent teacher associations, social justice movements are struggling with fighting for their children’s future and education and obtaining their own. This scholarship is intended to continue to plant the seeds of activism and to forever memorialize the women who came before us and whose shoulders we stand on today.
The Maverick Street Mothers organized community protests in the late 1960s against Logan Airport expansion construction. The protest was widely publicized as women, mostly mothers, formed a blockade using baby carriages to stop construction and delivery trucks on Maverick Street.
The Maverick Street Mothers protest was in response to the construction trucks bringing fill for a Logan expansion project. The trucks drove very fast down the densely populated Maverick Street, creating an unsafe situation for children, the elderly and the mothers that took their children out for walks or to run errands.
On September 28, 1968, led by local legend the late Anna DeFronzo, a group of mothers in what was to become a historic protest against the Port Authority and airport expansion.
The group became known as the ‘Maverick Street Mothers’ and their protest became the true beginning of environmental justice in Eastie and marked the opening salvo and first victory in the neighborhood’s famed transportation justice struggles.
After a series of clandestine community meetings it was decided that only women and children would participate in the demonstration because many felt if men were involved it might lead to fights and violence. The group notified the media, put out a simple press release and the next day, September 28, the demonstration began.
As the dump trucks arrived the mothers, most pushing their children in baby carriages, blocked the street.
The State Police arrived to restore order to the street and when the Maverick Mothers refused to back down. The State Police began to drag and push the mothers to the sidewalk so the trucks could continue. However, former Mayor Kevin White, who was being kept abreast of the situation, sent in the Boston Police to counter the State Police’s use of force.
The Boston Police made the trucks stop and ordered the protest to continue.
That night the event was all over the evening news.
When Massport caught wind that the protests would not end, but continued the next day, Eastie’s elected officials pointed out that there were several other viable truck routes on Massport property that could be used. After negotiations, Massport agreed to use the alternative truck routes and the Maverick Mothers scored a major victory during the era of Logan expansion.