Common Ground (Lukas book)

the book by J. Anthony Lukas
1985 nonfiction book by J. Anthony Lukas

Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families is a nonfiction book by J. Anthony Lukas, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1985, that examines race relations in Boston, Massachusetts, through the prism of desegregation busing. It received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, the National Book Award for Nonfiction,
and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In addition to the family stories, Common Ground examines many of the issues related to busing, including the protest movements, the disaffection between the "two toilet" Irish middle class and their working class brethren, the impact of busing on national politics, and the evolution of the city's newsmedia. A television miniseries based on the book aired in 1990.

The book traces the history of three families: the working class African American Twymons, the working class Irish McGoffs, and the middle class Yankee Divers. It gives brief genealogical histories of each families, focusing on how the events they went through illuminated Boston history, before narrowing its focus to the racial tension of the 1960s and the 1970s. Through their stories, Common Ground focuses on racial and class conflicts in two Boston neighborhoods: the working class Irish American enclave of Charlestown and the uneasily integrated South End. Each family is directly involved in the busing crisis. The McGoffs are proud residents of Charlestown who see an attempt to change the dynamics of their school as an assault on their families. The Twymons have long endured sub standard education and are hoping that busing will finally change this. Colin Diver, a Harvard Law School graduate and assistant to Mayor Kevin White, and his wife Joan Diver, director of The Hyams Foundation, move into the gentrifying South End, a block from one of the Twymon sisters, who lives with her children in the shoddily constructed Methunion Manor housing project. The Divers are in favor of busing, but the effects hit home when they learn that it may result in their own son being bused to a foreign neighborhood. After six years of combating racial and class tension and street violence, the Divers leave the city for suburban Newton.

Robert Dentler, a sociologist who helped Judge Garrity draft the busing plan, criticized Common Ground for "distorted, questionable legends" and a "docudramatic method of reporting" that "cloak[ed] the ignorance, fear, and hostility of the minority of citizens in the white enclaves of Boston who initiated racial violence in the robe of civic innocence." However, in a retrospective appreciation, LynNell Hancock of the Columbia Journalism Review wrote, "Anthony Lukas was a perfectionist in a world that is far from perfect. Common Ground is probably as close to that ideal as journalism can get."

Other notable Boston figures who play roles in the book include Barney Frank as an aide to Mayor Kevin White, young reporter Mike Barnicle, White foil Ted Kennedy, and community organizer Mel King.

It would be revealed in April, 2021, that the son that Rachel Twymon (daughter) put up for adoption was former Boston City Councilor and former Mayoral Candidate Tito Jackson (politician), who reconnected with her decades later.