US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts caused a civil rights brouhaha last month by citing a seeming disparity between voter registration and turnout rates among African-Americans living in Massachusetts […]
Kevin Peterson
Posted inPolitics
Mixed grade for Obama’s first term
BARACK OBAMA’S FIRST TERM was marked by daunting political realities. Upon entering office, he faced an economic crisis unmatched since the Great Depression. The banking system teetered on the verge […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
A frustrating Dream
Faith in The Dream By Deval Patrick Hyperion, 100 pages In the mid 1960s, when he was about 10 years old and living in Chicago, Deval Patrick went with one […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Turner vindicated by SJC ruling
To many of the constituents he once represented, vindication came as a sweet balm late last week when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that convicted former Boston City Councillor […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Election laws need overhaul
The Massachusetts Legislature recently accomplished what few believed was possible. With a singular commitment to broadening democracy in the state, it adopted a fair and comprehensive redistricting plan. For this […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Study takes measure of Boston poverty
A study released last month by The Boston Foundation delivered grim news about the state of racial inequality in the Hub, depicting alarmingly high levels of poverty within black and […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
The casino misery toll
As state lawmakers move closer to cutting a deal on casino gambling in Massachusetts they should carefully ponder the human downsides as much as they consider the revenue upside. The […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
The minority voting rights imperative
Dear Governor Patrick: Few Americans are more aware than you of the salient and inherent value of the right to vote and the importance and indispensability of representative democracy. Having […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
The state of black Boston: Not so good
The Urban League’s “State of Black Boston” report released Monday evokes the distinctly Hobbesian perspective that for many African-Americans in the Hub conditions are “poor, nasty, brutish and short.” To be […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
A woman’s place is in the House
When Niki Tsongas , the Lowell-based congresswoman, testified recently before the Massachusetts Special Joint Committee on Redistricting, she caused a kerfuffle. As the only woman in an otherwise all-male and […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Politics
Morphing Malcolm
Malcolm X: A Life of ReinventionBy Manning MarableNew York, Viking, 594 pagesReviewed by Kevin C. Peterson during the final weeks of his life, Malcolm X, the voluble and acerbic American […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
DiMasi and black Boston
Within minutes of the news that Sal DiMasi had been convicted on federal corruption charges, messages starting flying through cyberspace among those in Boston’s black activist community. But the focus […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Redistricting opportunities for minorities
In the redistricting process now underway, the state’s minority groups are poised to reshape significantly how they are represented in every elected office from selectman to state senator, from school […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Massachusetts is a global leader in innovation but not in civic matters
MASSACHUSETTS HAS BEEN long recognized as possessing unique capacities at producing innovations that have changed the nation and the world. Whether its residents are especially gifted or they take advantage […]
Posted inPolitics
Robert Putnams stories of hope for civic life in America
Better Together: Restoring the American CommunityBy Robert D. Putnam and Lewis M. Feldstein, with Don CohenSimon & Schuster, New York, 318 pages. In 2000, Robert Putnam’s book Bowling Alone documented […]