Pax Centurion: a tidbit from Boston’s racist history

A researcher tipped us off to this old Boston fanzine that’s archived in the UC Berkeley library. The article at large is about how white neighborhood organizers in Southie during the Boston busing crisis used racism and tools of fascism in order to fight forced desegregation in schools, even invoking the Ku Klux Klan to support their cause. Pax Centurion is referenced on page 37 as follows: “Another voice of support for the racist drive is the Boston Policeman’s Association whose official publication, Pax Centurion, is used as agitational literature at every rally and meeting of the white school boycott forces.” This finding shows that the bigotry in Pax is neither a fluke nor a recent phenomenon, but that the newsletter has historically been used to offend and inflame.

Here is a screenshot. It’s the oldest mention of Pax Centurion that we can find in any publication.  CAUTION: Contains racial slur.

Source: Science for the People, VII(2), page 37. March 1975.