Thursday, 4:30 PM
40 years after conviction, birth control activist returns to former Charles Street Jail
(Janet Knott/Globe Staff/file)
Bill Baird, the reproductive rights activist shown above in 1995 picketing outside Brookline District Court, is returning today the former Charles Street Jail, where he served 37 days for giving an unmarried woman a condom during a speech at Boston University.
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
At the new Liberty Hotel, there is an intimacy kit in the mini-bar of each room that includes a condom. That amuses Bill Baird, the reproductive rights activist who served 37 days in the building when it was the notorious Charles Street Jail.
"The ironic part is that is what I was in jail for," said Baird, who was convicted 40 years ago today. "Giving out one condom. One. And giving a young woman some birth control foam."
As a challenge to existing law, Baird was purposely arrested in April 1967 when he displayed birth control devices during speech at Boston University. His conviction on Oct. 17, 1967, would ultimately be overturned by the Supreme Court in a ruling that legalized birth control for unmarried people and helped lay the foundation for Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion.
To mark today's date, Baird, 75, is holding a press conference at the Liberty Hotel, where his picture appears next to other famous inmates who spent time in the jail, including Boston Mayor James Michael Curley and the suffragettes, who fought for women’s right to vote.
"We realize that there is a very dark history to this building and we want to honor the history, but at the same time we want to create a happy, enjoyable environment," said Regan Dillon, the director of public relations for the Liberty Hotel.
Baird began serving his three-month prison term at the Charles Street Jail on Feb. 20, 1970, but was released after 35 days when the Supreme Court agreed to hear his case. In 1972, the decision in Baird v. Eisenstadt legalized birth control for unmarried people as a right of privacy.
In the Charles Street Jail, Baird said he slept on a blood-stained mattress infested with lice. There were rats in his cell, bugs in his food, and "the horrors of people screaming at night." He hasn't been in the building since it was converted into a luxury hotel.
"I don't even know how I am going to react to it," said Baird, who has driven past the former jail in recent years on trips to Massachusetts General Hospital. "Every time I go past that building my body still shakes."
"But I'm thrilled to see, like the phoenix out of the ashes of despair, some good has come," Baird continued.
