The reform mayor of Boston, Kevin H. White (born 1929), was concerned with the revitalization of the downtown area to make Boston a "world-class city."

Kevin Hagan White was born on September 25, 1929, in Boston of a family which was noted in city politics. His parents were Irish Catholics, and both his father and his mother's father had been Boston City Council presidents. He married Kathryn Galvin in 1956, daughter of another Boston City Council president. He was educated at Tabor Academy, Williams College (AB, 1952), Boston College Law School (LLB, 1955), and the Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration.

He first sought public office as a Democrat, as secretary of state for Massachusetts, supplanting Edward W. Brooke in 1960. He held that office for the next three elections and was subsequently elected as mayor of Boston in November 1967.

In 1967 White was a sample of the new breed of urban mayors: extremely liberal, impartial...