91-YEAR-OLD BOSTON TRAILBLAZER STABBED WHILE WALKING IN PARK

Black Headline News
The Black Wall Street Times
By EZEKIEL J. WALKER

91-year-old civil rights pioneer Jean McGuire is expected to survive after being stabbed five times while walking through a park Wednesday evening.

Stabbed as she walked her dog in Franklin Park near her home in Roxbury Tuesday night, her attacker escaped and there have been no arrests in the case to date. Boston police also said the assailant may have been injured during the attack.

Boston detectives are urging anyone that was in the area during that time and may have witnessed the incident or observed anything suspicious to contact Area B-2 detectives at 617-343-4275.

McGuire became the METCO program’s executive director in 1973 and served in the position until 2016, according to a biography posted by Northeastern University.

According to Boston’s WCVB 5, in 1981, McGuire became the first Black woman elected to the Boston School Committee and served for more than 40 years as the executive director of the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO), which sends students of color from Boston to predominantly white suburban schools.

McGuire is still in the hospital, but is expected to make a full recovery. Her stabbing has sparked outrage and demands for accountability among local faith and community leaders.

Her family has released the following statement:

The family of Jean McGuire would like to thank all of the doctors and dedicated health care workers who are assisting in her recovery. We greatly appreciate the outpouring of love and support that we have received from people in the Greater Boston area, across Massachusetts, and around the world. 

Jean has spent her entire professional life fighting for all families to have the best educational opportunities to achieve their dreams. In her words, “We as a community can never forget that we need to stand together and continue working to empower our children through learning. We are at our best as a people; when it’s about ‘we’ not ‘me’. I love you all and I will see you soon.” 

For those looking to support Jean’s legacy, she and her family will ask people to direct donations to a nonprofit fund currently in development that will help promote the education of the children of greater New England. The family will make a formal announcement introducing the establishment of the fund in coming weeks.