Living in the house at the time were Floyd and Ruth McLaughlin and their five young children. Floyd had been raised in Melrose and graduated from Melrose High. An anti-segregationist, he had recently canvassed Melrose to urge his neighbors to call for the release of Ralph Allen. By day, he worked as a carpenter for Raytheon.
On September 16th, he had taken a job repairing the gutters at 9 Simonds Road, the home of two of Melrose’s only Black residents, Stanley C. Harris and his wife, Gladys. Harris was the leader of a popular swing band that played hotels, ballrooms, and social events. Simonds Road, with its easy access to Route 1, was the perfect location for someone with a job that took him all over the Boston area late into the night.
While McLaughlin was high on a ladder working to repair Harris’s gutters, a passing middle-aged white man yelled at him to stop working on a Black man’s house. A tense exchange ensued, and the white man ran away before McLaughlin could come down to confront him.
Over the course of the next two weeks, McLaughlin’s tires were slashed and his business sign was stolen from his truck. Finally, at 2:45 AM on September 26th, two plastic bottles full of gasoline were ignited on his back porch. The family escaped and the fire department arrived in time to save the house from the flames. Across the back of the house was painted “LEAVE NIGER LOVER.”
Fearing for his family’s safety, McLaughlin left Melrose, telling one newspaper that he would sell his house “to anyone, and that meant any Negro who wanted to buy it.” He died in 2007; his wife Ruth died in May of last year.
Stanley and Gladys Harris stayed in Melrose. Gladys died in 1996; Stanley joined her in 1999.
No one was ever charged in the attack on the McLaughlin family. While the perpetrator is likely dead, it is also likely that there is someone alive now who knows who committed this crime. If that person is you, please contact the Melrose Police.
#blackhistorymonth #melrosema
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