Up until the late 1960s, the area of Lower Roxbury around Madison Park was a vibrant neighborhood where luminaries such as jazz drummer Roy Haynes, former state representative and Minister Michael Haynes, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan and former Boston Police Superintendent William Billy Celester came of age.

But a plan that was hatched in 1962 would soon wipe the neighborhood from the city’s map, erasing the park that gave it its name, along with school buildings, homes and streets that were steeped in Roxbury history.

The end goal was an education complex that would consolidate all of the city’s high schools, save Boston Latin School and Girl’s Latin School, into one campus with shared athletic fields. Driving the vision for the new campus was newly appointed Boston Redevelopment Authority Director Ed Logue.

Read the entire article as it originally appeared in The Bay State Banner here.