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On October 13, 91-year-old civil rights activist Jean McGuire was stabbed while walking at a Jamaica Plain park in Boston, Massachusetts.
CBS reported that the incident took place at 8.30 pm, around Playstead Road in Frankling Park. Jean McGuire was walking her dog when she was attacked by an unknown suspect. Boston authorities reported that she was taken to the hospital in stable condition.
According to USA Today, Jean McGuire was the first black social worker to work in the Boston public school system. McGuire's friend, Jeriline Brady-McGinnis, told WBZ that the 91-year-old activist had been walking in that garden regularly for 40 years.
Brady-McGinnis claimed that McGuire and her dog fought back during the attack.
She said:
"[Jean] attacked this guy. She was kicking him (...) while Bailey was working him over. And he tried to run, and the dog chased him. And [the attacker] disappeared out of sight."
The suspect has not yet been identified.
Jean McGuire worked to make education accessible to underprivileged children
Born in 1931, Jean McGuire experienced a racially segregated school system first hand.
McGuire gained prominence in Boston in 1973, when she became the Executive Director of the Metropolitan Council for Education Opportunity, an organization dedicated to providing education for underprivileged inner city children. The initiative, which worked closely with black rights activists, made education more accessible across 190 Massachussetts schools.
In 1981, Jean McGuire became the first African-American woman in the Boston School Committee at large. METCO reported that she has also served as a board member in other activist groups, such as the Massachussetts Women's Political Caucus and the Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts.
Responses to the park attack
In an official statement from the activists' family, they acknowledged McGuire's history of fighting for social justice and accessible education across the state.
The statement read:
“Jean has spent her entire professional life fighting for all families to have the best educational opportunities to achieve their dreams. … 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 statement continued:
The family will make a formal announcement introducing the establishment of the fund in coming weeks.”
CBS Boston reported that on October 14, McGuire released another statement through her family.
The statement read:
“We as a community can never forget that we need to stand together and continue working to empower our children through learning."
The statement continued:
“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.”
Boston authorities have requested that anyone with information on the stabbing step forward.
