Quality, Not Race, Should Count

Michael McLaughlin’s lawsuit to get his daughter admitted to Boston Latin School after she had been rejected in favor of less qualified African Americans and Latinos prompts me to reminisce (“Ancient Wounds,” Jan. 16).

I attended Boston Latin with the class of 1931. The brightest student in my homeroom was Reed Edwin Peggram, the first black person I had ever known.

Racial quotas and set-asides had not been invented. Peggram and everyone else at Boston Latin was academically qualified. Reed Peggram lived in the black neighborhood of Dorchester, and his mother washed people’s clothes to support them. Reed ultimately graduated from the Sorbonne.

I though you might like to know how it was before quotas and set-asides.

CHARLES PIPER

Rancho Palos Verdes

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The names of famous graduates of Boston Latin School lead the coverage of a father’s lawsuit.

The name of philosopher George Santayana should be added to that list. He was born of Spanish parents in Madrid in December 1863 and spent the first nine years of his life in Spain. When he came to Boston with his mother, he spoke no English. He attended Boston Latin School for eight years beginning in 1874.

SHERRY TERZIAN

Los Angeles