Jean McGuire, 91 years old and still a fighter
Jean McGuire at a press conference
Image: David L. Ryan / The Boston Globe
18 October 2022
On Tuesday, 11 October 2022 afternoon 91 year old Boston civil rights activist Jean McGuire was walking her dog in Franklin Park. There she was assaulted by an armed assailant who stabbed her several times. She fought back and, likely due to his failure to quickly gain an upper hand, the assailant had taken off. McGuite was taken to a local hospital, treated and released. The police are looking for the assailant.
McGuire credits her martial arts training with being able to fight back effectively. I wonder if her whole life experience had contributed to it as well. She spent her whole life fighting for the rights of Black Bostonians to live in a world free of racial discrimination. In 1966 she helped found the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO), an organization whose mission was fighting racial segregation in the local education system. She was the first Black woman elected to the Boston School Committee. She clearly had a strong sense of right and wrong and strong lack of desire to put up with evil. That likely contributed to the fighting spirit that helped her survive the assault in the park.
Hopefully, her assailant will soon face justice. I wonder how he feels now, as he almost certainly knows who it was he had assaulted. But his shame is not enough - he needs to face formal justice as well.
References
Jean McGuire, 91, says she used self-defense training to fight off attacker, won’t walk in park alone again
Dialynn Dwyer, The Boston Globe, 18 October 2022