Cape Cod History

1986: Summer Labor Panic. 2008: Sen. Kennedy rushed to hospial. School segregation ends... in 1855

2008: Ted Kennedy stricken

On this day in 2008 Sen. Edward Kennedy was flown to a Boston hospital after suffering a seizure at his Hyannisport home. He was later diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor.

The Cape had a severe summer worker shortage in 1986 too
The more things change the more they stay the same

During this same spring period in 1986, Cape Cod's tourism sector was kvetching as loudly as it is today about the dire need for low-cost summer workers.

Like today there was little interest in matching the areas of severe unemployment an hour west of the Cape with those needs here. The emphasis was on low-cost and people willing to live like sardines for a few months.

If we were to change the dates and the prices in this New York Times story from 1986 to 2008, we could run it today as a current news item;

CAPE COD HUNTING FOR SUMMER HELP

To Cape Cod each year, April brings cold, wind-driven rains, flocks of northbound Canada geese and the start of the spring hunt for workers to fill thousands of summer jobs.

The winter employment of about 72,000 people compares with more than 101,000 in August last year.This summer, Cape Cod employers expect to need 22,000 to 23,000 people to work here from late May until well after Labor Day. At least 10,000 other summer jobs are expected to be available on Nantucket Island and Martha's Vineyard.

Employers are again looking for people to be retail clerks, chambermaids, cooks and kitchen helpers, waiters and waitresses, landscapers, skilled construction workers, qualified truck drivers, and beach maintenance workers and lifeguards.

In addition, there is an increased demand for security personnel. As the Cape's population has increased, so has its crime rate.

Most employers now offer at least $5 or $6 an hour, even for fast-food workers. Many fast-food outlets offer as many hours a week as a worker wants.

Housing Scarce and Expensive

But with all these advantages, there are some catches. Temporary housing is painfully expensive and scarce. Public transportation is minimal... But neither he nor Mr. Branton minimalizes the problems of finding and paying for housing and transportation.

Many summer jobs are not near affordable housing. And only a handful of the Cape's large resort hotels offer living quarters for their summer employees. Many residents rent rooms to summer workers, but the going rates for most are $60 to $75 a week per person. Furnished houses and beach cottages are available for rent but cost from $1,000 to more than $2,000 a month... Source.

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1954: Supreme Court ends segregation in schools
Boston did the same a century earlier

On this day in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the doctrine of separate but equal. "Segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race . . . deprives the children of a minority group of equal educational opportunities," the justices ruled in Brown v. Board of Education. In 1848 Boston's black community had turned to the courts to integrate the city's public schools. In ruling against them, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court asserted that separate was equal. The cause was won only when the fight moved from the courts to the state legislature, which voted to outlaw segregated public schools in 1855. A century later, attorneys in Brown v. Board used some of the same arguments lawyers had made in the Boston case.