Sacco and Vanzetti Remembered at the Rose Kennedy Greenway Park in Boston

On November 5, 2007 the Rose Kennedy Greenway Park, built on top of the "big dig", was officially opened to the public. The opening ceremony was attended by Governor Deval Patrick and Senator Edward Kennedy. According to the note in The Globe, "The North End park opened on Monday during a ceremony, which took part on the south side of Hanover Street between Cross Street and the Surface Artery.

The Greenway is named after Sen. Kennedy?s mother, who died in 1995 at the age of 104. Rose Kennedy grew up in the North End. One year after her death, the then-Gov. William Weld signed legislation naming the Greenway in her honor."

A timeline of historical events are contained in a series of plaques. One of them refers to the wrongful execution of anarchist labor organizers Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. The plaque reads:

1927

On August 23, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for a 1920 robbery and murder. The men claim to be victims of prejudice against radicals and immigrants. Many prominent intellectuals campaign unsuccessfuly for a retrial. One hundred thousand people visit the bodies at Langone Funeral Home on Hanover Street. In 1977, Governor Michael Dukakis exonerates them proclaiming that the case should be pondered "by all who cherish tolerance, justice and human understanding."

Photo by Frederick G.S. Clow