A 91-year-old education and civil rights activist who was stabbed while walking her dog in a Boston park has issued her first statement since the incident, per the Associated Press.
On Friday (October 14), Jean McGuire, the first Black woman to serve on the Boston School Committee, spoke out after she was stabbed multiple times in Franklin Park last week, keeping the attention on her lifetime work of helping children.
"We as a community can never forget that we need to stand together and continue working to empower our children through learning," McGuire said in the statement released by her family. "We are at our best as a people; when it’s about ‘we’ not ‘me’. I love you all and I will see you soon."
According to AP, the 91-year-old remains in the hospital following the apparently unprovoked park attack on Tuesday (October 11) night.
"The family of Jean McGuire would like to thank all of the doctors and dedicated health care workers who are assisting in her recovery," the family said in the statement. "We greatly appreciate the outpouring of love and support that Jean has received from people in the Greater Boston area, across Massachusetts, and around the world. Jean has spent her entire professional life fighting for all families to have the best educational opportunities to achieve their dreams."
The family noted that they plan to establish a nonprofit to help promote education throughout New England in honor of McGuire's legacy.
Her suspected stabber hasn't been caught, but police said he might have been injured during the attack.
Along with being the first Black woman on the school committee, McGuire helped found METCO Inc., the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, which gives Boston students of color access to predominantly white suburban schools. She was named the program's executive director in 1973 and served in the position until 2016, according to a biography posted by Northeastern University's John D. O'Bryant African American Institute.
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