Common Ground
Authors: J. Anthony Lukas
Also by J. Anthony Lukas
The Barnyard Epithet and Other Obscenities: Notes on the Chicago Conspiracy Trial
Don’t Shoot—We Are Your Children!
Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years
PRAISE FOR
Common Ground:
“A marvelous saga, rich with real-life characters and novelistic in the best sense.”
—
Newsweek
“A brilliant, large-hearted book … [which] works on and succeeds at so many levels—as history, as sociology, as journalism, as epic narrative … above all, an act of profound imagination.”
—James Carroll,
Boston Globe
“A work of consummate genius…. In its breadth, its nuance, and its quality as literature, though a piece of nonfiction,
Common Ground
is no less than Shakespearian.”
—
Commonweal
“A book that pulls the reader along as if it were fiction … a careful, dispassionate reconstruction of events by a writer who knows how to weave history, fact, anecdote, dialogue, and description into an utterly compelling narrative.”
—
Los Angeles Times
“J. Antony Lukas deserves an ovation for his splendid inquiry, one that will make any reader want to examine his own soul.”
—Alden Whitman,
Dallas Morning News
“A magnificent achievement…. No other writer currently practicing can match [Lukas’s] skills at weaving unwieldy complexities into a story that pulses like good, raunchy gossip.”
—Robert Sherrill,
Chicago Sun-Times
“A remarkable and compelling tale that is not only dramatic but also challenges a lot of comfortable assumptions about urban life in America…. This is a work of nonfiction, but in scope, in its fine attention to detail, it is reminiscent of the best novels of James Michener.”
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
“The political book of the year.”
—
Washington Monthly
“In many respects this book belongs in the tradition of literary-documentary studies—the kind of work James Agee did upon returning from his stint in rural Alabama in the 1930’s, or Orwell did when he wrote of his experiences among England’s coal miners in the same decade…. Without question J. Anthony Lukas now belongs in their company—his book well up to their high and idiosyncratic standards.”
—Robert Coles,
Washington Post Book World
“This is the riveting stuff of genuine tragedy … a true story vastly broader in scope than the nonfiction novels of Truman Capote and Norman Mailer.”
—George Higgins,
Newsday
“A model of thoroughness and balance…. As a narrative of people’s repeated losses of faith, above all faith that they can shape and control their own lives,
Common Ground
explains what once seemed incomprehensible, and persuades the reader that to understand is indeed to forgive.”
—
Time
“The best book on an American city that has ever been published.”
—
New England Monthly
“Mr. Lukas employs the narrative skill of a novelist and the breadth of view of a social historian to tell this story. With feeling for every social and political nuance, he traces the conflict to its roots, deftly leading the reader through the shifting and volatile fortunes of Boston and its neighborhoods.”
—
Baltimore Sun
“Uncommonly rewarding. In fact, there isn’t a dull page in it….
Common Ground
is not only about Boston in the ’70s; it is about all of us today, black or white, all of us participants in the American experiment.”
—
Milwaukee Journal
“The scope and depth of
Common Ground
are astonishing. Whether he is exploring family histories into generations in the distant past, or analyzing legal issues and social trends, or interpreting educational issues and scholarly treatises on school problems, or laying out the nuances of Boston politics, Lukas displays knowledge and understanding that holds one in awe.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“
Common Ground
leaves one exhilarated. This is not because of what the book says. Its pages record in excruciating detail the deterioration of American cities over the past decade. What makes the book inspiring is its author. For Lukas has demonstrated many of the attributes his subjects are lacking: tolerance, patience, and a willingness to see things from another person’s point of view.”
—
St. Petersburg Times
FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, September 1986
Copyright (c) 1985 by J. Anthony Lukas
Map copyright © 1985 by Jean Paul Tremblay
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, in 1985.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:
Almo Publications: excerpts from the lyrics to
We’ve Only Just Begun
, lyrics by Paul Williams, music by Roger Nichols. Copyright © 1970 Irving Music, Inc. (BMI). All rights reserved. International copyright secured.
The Boston
Globe:
excerpt from “An Open Letter to Senator Kennedy,” by Mike Barnicle, Sept. 8, 1974, reprinted courtesy of the Boston
Globe
.
Chappell & Company, Inc.: excerpts from the lyrics to
Carefully Taught
by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Copyright 1949 by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II. Copyright renewed, Williamson Music Co., owner of publication and allied rights throughout the Western Hemisphere and Japan. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Macmillan Publishing Company: four lines from “A Full Moon in March” are used by permission of Macmillan Publishing Company from
Collected Plays
of W. B. Yeats. Copyright 1934, 1952 by Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. Copyrights renewed 1962 by Bertha Georgie Yeats and 1980 by Anne Yeats; rights in the world excluding the United States are administered by A. P. Watt Ltd. as agent for Michael B. Yeats and Macmillan London, Ltd. Mighty Three Music: excerpts from the lyrics to
For the Love of Money
by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, and Anthony Jackson. Copyright © 1974 Mighty Three Music; excerpts from the lyrics to
I’ll Always Love My Mama
by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, Gene McFadden, and John Whitehead. Copyright © 1973 Mighty Three Music. Administered by Mighty Three Music Group, 309 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Edwin H. Morris & Company: excerpts from lyrics to
Hello, Dolly!
, lyrics and music by Jerry Herman. Copyright © 1963 Jerry Herman; excerpts from the lyrics to
Before the Parade Passes By
, lyrics and music by Jerry Herman. Copyright © 1964 by Jerry Herman. All rights throughout the world controlled by Edwin H. Morris & Company, a division of MPL Communications, Inc. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Newsweek, Inc.: excerpts from the cover story, November 6, 1967. Copyright © 1967 by Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. Harold Ober Associates Incorporated: excerpts from
Ballad of the Landlord
by Langston Hughes. Copyright 1951 by Langston Hughes. Copyright renewed 1979 by George Houston Bass;
The City
- eight line version by Langston Hughes. Copyright © 1958 by Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lukas, J. Anthony, 1933–
Common ground.
Reprint. Originally published: New York : Knopf, 1985.
1. Boston (Mass.)—Race relations. 2. School integration—Massachusetts—Boston. 3. Busing for school integration—Massachusetts—Boston. 4. Diver family. 5. Twyman family. 6. Goff family. I. Title.
F73.9.A1L85 1986 370.19′342 86-40132
eISBN: 978-0-307-82375-5
v3.1
To Linda
who saw through me
and saw me through
Author’s Note
This is a work of non-fiction. All its characters are real, as are their names, the places where they live, the details of their personal lives. Nothing has been disguised or embellished. Where I have used dialogue, it is based on the recollection of at least one participant.
The three families at the center of my story were not selected as statistical averages or norms. On the contrary, I was drawn to them by a special intensity, an engagement with life, which made them stand out from their social context. At first, I thought I read clear moral imperatives in the geometry of their intersecting lives, but the more time I spent with them, the harder it became to assign easy labels of guilt or virtue. The realities of urban America, when seen through the lives of actual city dwellers, proved far more complicated than I had imagined.
J.A.L.
New York City
January 1985