E.W. Jackson, the Virginia GOP’s nominee for lieutenant governor, began his career as a minister and attorney in Boston. While there, he lent his support to a high-profile 1988 fight against a plan to desegregate public housing developments in the neighborhood of South Boston.
The 1988 battle over housing desegregation in South Boston began after the federal government found the city of Boston had illegally segregated public housing and prevented African Americans from moving into public developments in the neighborhood. Boston was ordered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to come up with a new tenant selection plan or face a federal takeover of its public housing system. As a result, Ray Flynn, the city’s mayor, came up with a desegregation plan.
Local news station WGBH filmed Jackson giving a speech at a July 1988 community meeting in South Boston hosted by opponents of the mayor’s desegregation plan. According to WGBH, at the event Jackson dismissed the desegregation plan as “social engineering.” In his remarks, Jackson characterized the matter as a question of freedom of choice.
“I am so tired of hearing the people of South Boston dumped on by the saviors of mankind that it makes me nauseous,” Jackson said of desegregation advocates. “I can understand the reaction of the people of South Boston apart from the racial issue because I don’t like being told by some bureaucrat how I’m going to live my life either.”
Jackson, who was identified as a radio station manager and pastor of the New Corner Baptist Church in Roxbury, also spoke with a reporter from WGBH. In the interview, he indicated he believed people should be allowed to choose to live separately from members of other races.
“I think that maximum emphasis needs to be put on the ability of people to choose, even if that means some housing developments are predominantly of one race or another,” said Jackson.
