Louise Day Hicks

Louise Day Hicks (1969)

Louise Day Hicks (born October 16, 1916 in South Boston , Massachusetts , †  October 21, 2003 ) was an American politician . Between 1971 and 1973 she represented the state of Massachusetts in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Anne Louise Day, her maiden name, attended the public schools in her home country. In 1938 she graduated from Wheelock Teachers College . Since 1942 she was married to the engineer John Hicks, with whom she had two sons. Until 1955 she studied at the Boston University School of Education . After completing a law degree at the School of Law at Boston University and being admitted to the bar in 1958, she began to work in this profession. In 1960 she was an advisor to the Boston Juvenile Court . From 1962 to 1967 she acted as treasurer of the school board of this city, which she chaired from 1963 to 1965. Politically, Hicks joined the Democratic Party . In 1967 she ran unsuccessfully for the office of Mayor of Boston. Here she faced the candidate Kevin White, like her Democrat. The Boston Globe had broken with a 75-year tradition by recommending White. Two years later she was elected to the local city council. She was also temporarily president of the Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers.

In the 1970 congressional election , Hicks was elected to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the ninth constituency of Massachusetts , where she succeeded John W. McCormack on January 3, 1971 . Since it was not confirmed in 1972, it could only serve one term in Congress until January 3, 1973 . This was shaped by the events of the Vietnam War .

Louise Hicks was best known for her opposition to racial equality in schools in the 1960s and 1970s. She was the organizer of the former organization Restore Our Alienated Rights ( ROAR ), founded in 1974 , which opposed the judicially ordered bus transport of black students to white schools in order to overcome de facto racial segregation. Hicks, who did not see herself as a racist and, for example, rejected George Wallace because of his racist attitude, argued that the white students had to pay for the failed policy towards the blacks. Even after the end of her time in Congress, she advocated the negative attitude to racial equality in schools. She became a member and 1976 president of the Boston City Council. She was not re-elected in 1977. She died in South Boston on October 21, 2003.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Guide to the Louise Day Hicks records
2. ↑ papers in the archives of Boston City.

Web links

• Louise Day Hicks in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Louise Day Hicks in the database of Find a Grave (English)