the rise and fall of the Occupy Boston encampment at Dewey Square has been hailed as a model of how police and city officials should respond to peaceful political dissent […]
Civil and Constitutional Rights
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Playing offense on redistricting
The last time lawmakers sat down to redraw the state’s legislative districts, they protected three white incumbents by sequestering black votes in Boston, an action that put them on the […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Rebels without a cause?
THE MAIN COMPLAINT against the Occupy movement that has sprung up in New York, Boston and other cities has been that the group lacks focus: the distribution of wealth, rising […]
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 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 inEconomy, Politics
More efficient legal services for the poor
thanks to a relatively strong economic recovery and our prudent fiscal management during the recession, Massachusetts is in a much better financial position than most other states. Read the response to this […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Plan violates separation of powers provisions
the committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS) board and management staff have no quarrel, and in fact are in agreement, with the overall point made by Secretary Gonzalez. Read the argument […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Boston NAACP moves to recapture relevance
The NAACP’s Boston branch all but dropped out of sight in recent years, but new president Michael Curry is looking to erase doubts about the all-volunteer organization’s relevancy by stepping […]
Posted inPolitics
Patrick nominates gay judge to SJC
Gov. Deval Patrick nominated Barbara Lenk to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court, allowing the openly gay Appeals Court judge to join the court whose 2003 decision in Goodridge v. Department […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
State House Wisconsin rally
A rally Feb. 26 at the State House in support of Wisconsin public sector unions attracted hundreds of people. Halfway through the rally hundreds more arrived as part of an […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Tribes lobby for reservation land
The demise of state gambling legislation this summer was a blow to Gov. Deval Patrick and many legislators, but no one was more disappointed when the deal fell apart than […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Shirley Sherrod he knew
By Michael Jonas It is a mild understatement to say there is plenty that initial media reports and the Obama administration had wrong about Shirley Sherrod. But the lessons involve more than just the unconscionable […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
MBTA employees allege discrimination
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Posted inArts and Culture, Politics, State House News Service
A shot seen round the world
every era has its touchstone photograph. The Marines hoisting the American flag on Iwo Jima telegraphs the hard-fought triumphs of World War II. The New York City firemen raising the […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, State House News Service
A question of equity
Nine black students, protected by the 101st AirborneDivision of the US Army, began classes at the all-whiteLittle Rock Central High School in 1957.Photo by UPI/LANDOV.as new england prepared to cheer […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Politics
Good Courts The Case for Problem Solving Justice proves that specialized courts can pay off
Good Courts: The case for Problem Solving Justice By Greg Berman and John Feinblatt, with Sarah Glazer New York, The New Press, 237 pages Winter 2006 During their required course […]
Posted inPolitics
The Red Sox have transcended if not reversed the racial curse
Now that donkeys can fly, hell has frozen over, and the Red Sox have been champions for an entire year, there exists here a palpable desire to peer even more […]
Posted inPolitics
Sarahs Long Walk chronicles the first fight for school integration in Boston more than 150 years ago
Sarah’s Long Walk: The Free Blacks of Boston and How Their Struggle for Equality Changed America By Stephen Kendrick & Paul Kendrick Boston, Beacon Press, 291 pages. In 1850, 46 […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
Wrong answer on school finances
In the first week of October, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments in the Hancock school finance case. The arguments addressed the opinion issued last April by Superior Court […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
The state still doesnt provide equal education
June 15, 1993: an important day for education in Massachusetts. On that day, the Supreme Judicial Court issued its decision in McDuffy v. Secretary of Education and defined the Commonwealth’s […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Sociologist Thomas Shapiro says that a lack of assets, not income, is holding African-Americans back
On the issue of economic inequality, Americans are of two minds. On the one hand, we value opportunity over security, balancing a meager safety net (compared with other developed countries) […]
Posted inPolitics
Popping the Question
One almost certain consequence of Goodridge, et al v. Department of Public Health, the decision by the Supreme Judicial Court last November to allow gay marriage, will be an increase […]