Restore Our Alienated Rights (ROAR) was an organization formed in Boston, Massachusetts by Louise Day Hicks in 1974. Opposed to desegregation busing of Boston's public school students, the group protested the federally-mandated order to integrate Boston Public Schools by staging formal, sometimes violent protests. It remained active from 1974 until 1976.
Background
Many citizens felt the racial imbalance in Boston needed to be improved. The African-Americans of Boston had been fighting for equality in black and white public schools for decades before the creation of the Racial Imbalance Act or the formation of ROAR. Due to the inherent segregation within Boston, many schools were composed of either majority white or majority black students. This led to the white schools receiving more funding per student and having newer educational resources while black schools were receiving statistically much less funding and were typically of inferior quality than schools in primarily white districts.
One of the members of the Boston School Committee, Louise Day Hicks, was to become the founder of ROAR. The committee itself denied any accusations of inequity amongst white and black students. Hicks spoke outwardly against the desegregation of schools. The NAACP was not willing to let this segregation continue and filed a lawsuit against the Boston School Committee; this was the beginning of the Tallulah Morgan v. James Hennigan case which would eventually bring about forced busing. On June 21, 1974, Judge Garrity ruled that the Committee was to create a plan to desegregate their schools. When the committee failed to provide such an idea, the federal court became involved. By federal decision, students were to be bused to schools in different districts to decrease the level of inequal education students were receiving.
Those who opposed the forced busing, which happened to be the majority of whites, especially mothers, in Boston, retaliated with protests. They eventually organized to create ROAR. While some of their concerns were legitimate, the organization was ultimately pro-segregation of schools. Not all members were definitive racists, but there was a connection between the group and racism as some of the members spoke outwardly against blacks. Initially a small group of females, they quickly gained local popularity as many locals shared their opinions. The act of forced busing was seen as a populist movement that potentially threatened the traditional values that the women of ROAR held. The fusing of mainly African-American and white districts could dissipate the borders between two very different neighborhoods that held different values, leading to certain groups feeling alienated.
Founding
Louise Day-Hicks created "Save Boston Committee" in February 1974 with an agenda to restore "the custodial rights of parents over their children". She believed it was unfair for the government to force all public schools to desegregate, claiming it was neither a viable nor a beneficial way to improve American society and education. The group was later renamed ROAR to oppose the Racial Imbalance Act in 1974. The busing change in their eyes was "a total disaster". Hicks changed the name by the summer to ROAR. She used her position as a mother to rally others into her cause, arguing that the government needed to take a different approach if they wanted a stable nation. Some Americans, namely white mothers believed they were righteous in their cause and that they just wanted to keep the school environment running properly as much as possible.
Purpose
The group's purpose was to fight off U.S. Federal Judge W. Arthur Garrity's court order requiring the city of Boston to implement desegregation busing — an order intended to eliminate de facto racial segregation in its public schools. To supporters, ROAR's purpose was its namesake; i.e., to protect the "vanishing rights" of white citizens. To its many opponents, however, ROAR was a symbol of mass racism coalesced into a single organization. ROAR was composed primarily of women, and its leaders argued that "the issue of forced busing is a women's issue."
On April 3, 1974, the committee organized a 20,000 person march from Boston City Hall Plaza to the State House. On March 19, 1975, 1,200 ROAR members marched in Washington DC to generate national support for their cause.