91-year-old civil rights pioneer stabbed in Boston used self-defense training to fight off attack
A 91-year-old Massachusetts civil rights pioneer who was stabbed in Boston last week explained how she survived the attack before she was released from the hospital on October 19. Jean McGuire
By WCVB Staff
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BOSTON (WCVB) — A 91-year-old Massachusetts civil rights pioneer who was stabbed in Boston last week explained how she survived the attack before she was released from the hospital Tuesday.
Jean McGuire, who was the first Black woman on the Boston School Committee and a METCO founder, was stabbed multiple times near 25 Playstead Road while she was walking her dog one week ago.
Boston police said McGuire was walking her dog on a path near Seaver Street that leads to Franklin Park. Officials said the suspect was injured and may have needed medical attention.
During a news conference Tuesday, McGuire said that she will never go to the park alone again.
“I’ve never — not in my 91 years — not felt safe walking the streets of Boston day or night — ever. And now, I will never go up there to the park alone again,” she said. “If we can’t live together without killing each other and endangering each other, we are in real trouble.”
McGuire said she relied on self-defense training to protect herself during the attack.
Jean McGuirePolice: Man in pictures no longer ‘person of interest’ in Jean McGuire attack; no one facing charges “I didn’t have any words. I used the training I had, which I did with my staff, to protect myself,” McGuire said. “I always wanted to find out ‘why are you so angry? Why do you want to hurt someone else?'”
Her family thanked the hospital staff at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for their help in her recovery.
“For a 91-year-old woman to go through this type of incident and survive is truly a blessing,” McGuire’s nephew, Mark Williams, said.
No arrests have been made in McGuire’s stabbing.
“We want to ask our community to stand up for Jean — if you know anything, if you saw anything, please call (police),” McGuire’s nephew Ron Mitchell said. “If you saw anything, please come forward so we can get this person. Our community needs to stay safe.”
Detectives are urging anyone that was in the area during that time and may have witnessed the incident or observed anything suspicious to contact Area B-2 detectives at 617-343-4275.
In 1981, McGuire became the first Black woman elected to the Boston School Committee and served for more than 40 years as the executive director of the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO), which sends students of color from Boston to predominantly white suburban schools.
McGuire became the METCO program’s executive director in 1973 and served in the position until 2016, according to a biography posted by Northeastern University.
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