Boston's new Black and BIPOC City Councilors are:
at-large Councilors Ruthzee Louijeune and Erin Murphy and
district Councilors Brian Worrell, Kendra Hicks and
Tania Fernandes Anderson for Roxbury District.
Returning members are:
Michael Flaherty
Julia Mejia
Lydia Edwards, left to run for state office
Ed Flynn
Frank Baker
Ricardo Arroyo
Kenzie Bok
Liz Breadon
The best explanation about why Boston has never elected a Black Mayor is here in a GBH Radio article with Ken Cooper.
Before Election night, we issued an appeal and this was it.
Come on Black people of Boston It will be a crying shame if Black voter strategists do not suceed in electing a Black Mayor to govern the City of Boston in 2022. Kim Janey, our Black temporary mayor is a good start, but the scrappy city council threatens to unseat her. If Black people do not elect a Black Boston Mayor by popular vote -- you can do it using strategies that pushed our First Black Congresswoman into office -- then I don't know what to say. It is July 5th. You've got plenty of time before November elections Black people, so just do it.
(July 1, 2021) -- There is almost no body else running for Boston Mayor except Black people and some BIPOCs. A number of fine candidates have entered the race. Asian Michelle Wu, a current city councilor at-large was leading in the first official poll taken by big mass Boston media by a few points.
The African American incumbent KIM JANEY, our first Black to control the mayor's seat, was a very close second to Michelle Wu in that poll. RACE MATTERS in this election. It really does. White voters have always been able to assemble enough votes as a block to elect their choices for decades. Chances are, most White voters will vote for the one White woman running who says she's not White, she an ethnic minority, but there are not that many voters from her home country here.
So the Police and groups like them have endorsed the White Ethnic Minority candidate and councilor Mrs. Annissa Essaibi George in the race for new Boston Mayor 2022.
Andrea Campbell ran for Mayor
Michelle Wu voters delivered
Black organizers formed a broad coalition of support to get their name change proposition on the ballot before voters. The result is YES. When all the votes that mattered were counted, "YES" voters outnumbered the "NOs" by a wide margin. Voters said yes to changing the name of Dudley Square to Nubian Square.
Dudley Square is in Roxbury, Boston's oldest city and the heart of African American culture and heritage in Massachusetts. Sadiki Kambon established the name change movement as a point-of-difference guiding the predominantly African-American Roxbury neighborhood towards ownership of its unique cultural heritage. Mr. Kambon has successfully put the "MLK Boulevard" name on street signs and is also campaigning to remove the President of Roxbury Community College.
The Board of Election has named Julia Mejia the winner by one vote for the Boston City Council At-Large seat over Alejandra St. Guillen. The other three at-large councillors for 2020 will be incumbents Michelle Wu, Michael Flaherty and Annissa Essaibi George.
The district city councillors will be Ricardo Arroyo (new), outgoing council president Andrea Campbell returns; Kim Janey of the Roxbury District was re-elected, Priscilla Kenzie Bok will be seated, and Liz Breadon won. Returning councillors are Lydia Edwards, Edward Flynn, Frank Baker, and Matt O-Malley.
"We need to abolish the BPDA; we need to move away from a system of development where the process is based on special approvals and exceptions and one-off negotiations and instead empower communities to be part of planning a city that is actually livable for everyone," she said.
Boston City Councilwoman at-large, Michelle Wu
The 54-page plan to Abolish the BPDA.
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Liz Miranda, State Rep Suffolk 5th district
Rachael Rollins, Suffolk County District Attorney
Women in power on the 2016 Boston City Council.
Congratulations Candidates! You are taking it all the way up to the victor's throne. Blacks are blazing campaign trails with clarity, purpose and comprehension of the issues people with no political power go to bed thinking about. Its happening in Randolph, Framingham, East Boston and Roxbury. By their upbringing, their will power, their determination and purpose, they run. We wish you all the very best.
We should all VOTE November 7th and help these candidates make political history again.
"Black Boston - through its 351 years, Roxbury has been a hunting and farming area, site of working estates and governor's residences and home to a series of immigrants and ethnic communities, It is now the Center of Boston's Black community which can trace its roots in Boston to Revolutionary times and before." ( a direct quote from the 1982 Roxbury Survey Bulletin )
(September 26, 2017) - Roxbury's City Councillor Tito Jackson advances in mayoral race to the final runoff against the incumbent Mayor Marty Walsh. Also around the Black Boston politics circuit, Lydia Edwards and Kim Janey advance to final runoffs for Boston City Council seats. If both are successful, there would be 6 female councillors governing the city
Deval Patrick won the governor's race in 2006 and took power in 2007. In the beginning of the campaign, Kahil Byrd drove the campaign startup cycle. When asked why Patrick was running, Patrick said "I had heard countless others tell me I should run because I can make a difference." The impact of Mr. Patrick's contribution to Black Boston and Massachusetts state is a history that has been recorded. Governor Patrick's term ended January 2014. He was the first African American governor of Massachusetts. After leaving office Mr. Patrick became the first black partner at Bain Capital, Inc. Headquartered in Boston, Bain is an international consulting and equities investment firm cofounded by former presidential candidate and Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
Listen to Governor Patrick's 2010 English High School kickoff re-election speech audio recorded exclusively by AboutBlackBostonOnline.com. It opens on the song "Baby You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet," by 80's pot head band favorite "Bachman Turner Overdrive" and includes a shoutout to Congressmen Capuano.
Boston Black clergy walks a thin line before the public on election day. It is not known what white pastors and ministers are telling their followers about politics, but Black ministers make sure the public knows they are NOT publicly endorsing a candidate in today's election (its the IRS rules thing about non-profit status.) These ministers are speaking one thing certain. They're saying that today is your date to vote. They're saying if you do not vote and come to them with a problem, they cannot help you at City Hall because if you don't vote you don't count at City Hall. Black church leaders want you to vote. They've been working on this message all the way up to election day. If Blacks who listen to them fail to exercise their right to vote today, Black ministers will be disappointed.
The Vietnam War and the invasion of Iraq clearly show how negative outcomes are created by political leaders who make bad decisions. For Blacks, this is nothing new. Official Housing and Urban Development (HUD) policy for 20th century housing markets threw Blacks into housing projects, behind red-lined boundaries, and made it impossible for white real estate agents to sell houses to Black people where they wanted to live. The practice went on into the 70's. HUD created the Black Ghetto.
MBE Minority Enterprise business numbers produced by political policy implementations
Follow the Money and view Massachusetts MBE revenue figures.
view - Boston Demographic Reports by neighborhood ( previous years )
stay connected
Diversity in Government at City Hall
Positions are changing and this information may be outdated. The City of Boston's Chief Diversity Officer is Daniels Tavares, a native of Praia, Cabo Verde. The Boston mayor appointed his election opponent John Barros Chief of the Office of Economic Development. Together they successfully lobbied General Electric to move its HQ to Boston. Lead directors in the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) are women of color. Jamie R. Williamson is the Chairwoman and Charlotte Golar Richie is Commissioner. Denise Simmons is the current African American mayor of the City of Cambridge.
(June 24, 2016) - The panel of Kevin Peterson, political activist and radio producer, Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell, Bob Marshall of the Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts, and Darnell William, President of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts discussed racism issues inside Boston Latin School and around the Boston Public School system on Kevin's weekly Politics and Grits radio show airing online and on Boston Praise Radio TV at WRCA 1330 AM and WBPG-LP 102.9 FM.
Press Play, move playhead forward to 02:00 for the Boston Latin segment.(March 2016) - The Boston NAACP, the Urban League of Eastern Mass and local civil rights protectors have effectively used public advocacy and political pressure on behalf of #BlackatBLS Black Students at Boston Latin School protesters. Using social media, black student leaders made the case that the principal of the school left them less than satisfied when they brought complaints about racist activity in the school to her.
The result: The Carmen Ortiz Office of US Attorney in Boston announced a civil rights investigation about the incidents. You can learn about this epic situation in news story.
@BOSCityCouncil shows support, awards official City of Boston resolution to #BlackAtBls Boston Latin school student protest group provided by @titojackson @AyannaPressley @CampbellforD4.
September 9, 2015 - Incumbent District Four Boston City Councilor Charles Yancey lost the preliminary election once in 32 years according to one source, to first time candidate Andrea Campbell.
Boston Banner Bay State Banner newspaper political opinions.
Dorchester Reporter newspaper elections report
There are two reasons corporate America embraces diversity. Government policy demands it. And the marketplace demands it. Customers feel more comfortable when buying from someone that looks like them. So marketing is political - a control mechanism.
Boston's newest global corporate citizen (NYSE: GE) is the world’s Digital Industrial Company. They have a thing going on for African American engagement and they describe it this way:
The GE African American Forum (AAF) mission is to strengthen African American employees at GE through professional development, career management, and mentoring that will enable retention and growth. The forum also works to strengthen the bonds between GE and its local African American communities."
photo by Amber Rose Johnson (FB)
Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke about Black Lives Matter,
the movement, race and inequality at the Edward Kennedy Institute on 9/27/2015.
scroll forward, her speech starts at 12:50
Senator Warren and Congressman Elijah Cummings of Maryland have organized a Multi-Racial Coalition agenda in Washington DC to enact legislation because of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The cold record breaking historic Boston snowfall couldn't keep Boston City Councillor Ayanna Pressley from winning the EMILY'S LIST Rising Star award earlier this year. EMILY’s List three million members strong have willed the elections of 19 Democratic African American women currently serving in the US Congress and takes credit for having elected every Democratic Congresswoman currently serving. But there hasn't been an an African American woman Senator in 16 years, and there has never been an African American woman governor elected yet. African American women still face social, political, and cultural barriers that keep them from running for office.
The NAACP celebrated 100 years in Boston in 2007 and we want you to have a souvenir keepsake you can download here.
It has rare photos and NAACP movement history.
The Niagara Movement 1905-1909, established the modern civil rights movement and led to the founding of the NAACP. The third of its five meetings and the largest was held in Boston in Faneuil Hall in 1907. The movement’s membership, led by W.E.B. Du Bois, was made up of some the most accomplished African American businessmen, teachers and clergy of the day. It was intended to counteract the inequity and the social and political ills impacting African Americans at the time. The late 1800s saw the demise of the Reconstruction Period. In 1896 the Supreme Court Decision of Plessy vs. Ferguson created government approved segregation.
Boston NAACP phone number (617)427-9494.
BCIC Boston's Black Community Information Center | blackinfonow.org
Current Press Releases from Boston City Hall - current copy
Directory - of all Boston City Councilors
Job Description for a Massachusetts Governor
The Governor is head of the executive branch and serves as chief administrative officer of the state and as commander-in-chief of the Massachusetts' military forces. His or her responsibilities include preparation of the annual budget, nomination of all judicial officers, the granting of pardons (with the approval of the governor's Council), appointments of the heads of most major state departments, and the acceptance or veto of each bill passed by the Legislature.
Several Executive Offices have also been established, each headed by a Secretary appointed by the Governor, much like the president's Cabinet.
Source: Citizens Information Service
The Governor may recommend new policies for Massachusetts, new legislation, and changes in the administration of departments that conduct the government from day to day. He or she has the power to order out the National Guard to meet domestic emergencies, and is Massachusetts chief spokesman with the federal government.
(Jan 2, 2014) - It is not difficult to see how this came to be.
WALSH won the popular vote in the 2013 Boston mayor's race. He got Black, Latino and Hispanic voters in his column by negotiating places in his administration for competitors Barros and Arroyo after polling data revealed they could not win the race themselves. Barros was endorsed by the Boston Globe.
With those moves, Dorchester Savin Hill candidate Marty Walsh took the person of color block vote away from West Roxbury challenger John Connolly in the final election. Notable Black Boston leaders supporting Connolly were Touch FM radio station co-owner Charles Clemmons, Minister Don Muhammad of the Nation of Islam and Sister Virgina Morrison of the Grove Hall Neighborhood Development Corporation.
Take a look at everyone in the photo above. Mayor Walsh is the fellow 2nd from the right and his opponents are there with him. They joined his transition team and some may work in his new administration. Boston, its going to work out. We will see.
Happy New Year Charlotte Golar Richie. Best also to Mr. Barros and Mr. Arroyo. May the force be with you all. Bostonians are going to need it. You all left a lot of engaged citizens waiting in anticipation for the fresh start - the new ONE BOSTON, if it can ever be JUST 1.
They will be peering through microscopic glasses at you, watching what you do. Transparency was part of your promise, now allow it to become part of your everyday plans. We know its incredibly hard to administer a democracy. But, there will be expectations that you'll do better for the 99% than the last guy did!
(Nov 1, 2013 Boston) - John Connolly endorsed by Charles Clemmons, an African American former Boston mayoral candidate and current radio station co-owner of Touch 106.1FM branded the fabric of the Black Community with an estimated 190,000 listeners in Black Boston.
( October 2013 ) - Black Boston political leaders, Black ministers and a tiny number of well-known black business leaders have spread their mayoral endorsements carefully across the Boston mayor's race spectrum. Bay State Banner Newspaper royalty - Boston's premiere African American community newspaper, has endorsed John Connolly for Mayor as did prominent black business leader Clayton Turnbull. An endorsement for John Connolly flowed from a congregation of well-known black ministers including the Rev. Bruce Wall of Global Ministries.
Martin Walsh got the most endorsements from Boston political leaders of color. Endorsing were the first elected Latino Massachusetts State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz, Black Legislative Caucus leaders Rep. Carlos Henriquez and Rep. Gloria Fox; Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo, DSNI Executive and former candidate John Barros of Cape Verde, and countless others in the progressive community. Former mayoral candidate Charlotte Golar Richie (CGR) who place third behind Walsh and Connolly endorsed Martin Walsh too.
( 2013) - Only 13% of registered voters in Boston's 65 majority-black voter districts voted in the recent mayoral preliminary. This low voter turnout caused candidates of color to lose their best chance in 30 years to become Mayor of Boston. Of Boston's 600,000 residents, more than 50% are people of color and the governor of Massachusetts is African-American.
(after the election SCRUM on Mayor's Preliminary Race 2013 ) Reducing Political Failure to Clarity
Appearing in this video story are WGBH News senior reporter Phillip Martin, Ken Cooper, the editor of UMass Boston's Trotter Review, and Dr. Peniel Joseph, the Tuft University professor of African-American studies.
ONE REASON - "Boston, in terms of the way local, municipal politics have played out historically, they're in a different position now," Joseph said of the candidates of color. "It's a majority-minority city, but there's no power broker or community organization that could winnow these candidates out before they ran."
September 24th, Charlotte Golar Richie lands in 3rd place. First and second place winners Marty Walsh and John Connally advance to Nov final mayoral election.In this audio file, Richie discusses poll results before the election and her thoughts about candidate John Barros receiving the Boston Globe newspaper endorsement.
press PLAY or right-click to download the MP3
Copyright 2013, Boston Herald Radio
*ENDORSED BY THE BOSTON GLOBE
Congrats to John Barros and his family's newest baby! Mr. Barros has offered compelling reasons to elect him mayor of Boston. He's a grad of Dartmouth College and a candidate for a Masters in Public Policy from Tufts University and has been the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Inc. Executive Director where over 200 permanent affordable homes were added to the city's housing stock.
Charlotte Golar Richie has opened six new offices in Boston Mayoral districts for campaign outreach and communications.
The Freedom House explains why it did not permit the Candidates of Color forum for Boston mayor to be held on its property.
Press the play button to hear Freedom House CEO Katrina Shaw on Touch 106.1 FM radio.
Right click to "Save Audio As" MP3.
(file size: 25mb. Copyright 2013, Touch 106.1 FM)
Access the election department for voter statistics, voting procedures and forms.
Besides improving the city’s image, electing a mayor of color would represent an important step toward healing the lingering wounds of the busing crisis. Power dynamics would change, too. City employees, already from all races and ethnicties, would work under a chief executive of color for the first time, which in turn could embolden more people of color to run for office, building a pipeline" ... wrote Ken Cooper in the article "Why Boston Needs a Mayor of Color," (Boston Globe, August 18th).
BREAKING!
Jamarhl Crawford enters race for Roxbury District Seven. Its Crawford vs Tito Jackson time! Boston City Council District Seven covers Roxbury and Black Boston. Crawford launched his write-in campaign effort after depositing funds with the state office of political finance and campaigns. He's an activist, author and publisher of the BlackStonian web site.
Here is the new state Senator Linda Dorcena Forry. She won! Her First Suffolk Senate district covers South Boston. It had historically been the seat that propeled Irish-American men from South Boston to powerful leadership positions in the Massachusetts General Court.
Congratulate Linda Dorcena Forry, the first Haitian-American to serve in the Massachusetts state Senate and the first woman to represent the district.
Follow this link to connect with the eleven members of the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus.
Jose Maria Pereira Neves, Prime Minister of the Republic of Cape Verde was in town March 31st and received a commendation from Boston City Councillor Charles C. Yancey at the Dorchester House. Elected President of the “Partido Africano da Independência de Cabo Verde (PAICV), Neves was cited for his leadership and for steering his country through the financial crisis.
A hearing about City of Boston minority staff hiring and its vendor contract practices was convened by Councilor Yancey. It is his position that Boston simply isn't hiring enough black people and minorities in key positions to run the government. Minority-owned business contract vendors feel that improvements can be made in their sector. Meanwhile, the Mass Convention Authority seeks proposals to build new hotels on Boston Harbor.
ROXBURY DISTRICT COUNCILLOR Tito Jackson, appeared with Outreach Director for the Warren Campaign, Steve Tomkins on CityLine5's post-election special public affairs tv show, along with Latino organizer Oiste to discuss local grassroots campaign efforts and their impact on pushing Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren and President Barack Obama into elected office.
He cited the work that was being done block by block long before the election was held and praised Elizabeth Warren for being focused on issues such as foreclosure, hiring local campaign workers and making numerous appearances in Black Boston. Catch another side of the story in a live stream from Basic Black on GBH2.
On November 2, 2012 the majority of Boston City Councillors approved a new redistricting map required by Census results that will remove people of color from some voting districts and place them in others.
Black councillors Tito Jackson and Ayanna Pressley along with Latino councillor Felix Arroyo were part of the 11-2 decisive vote. Councilor Charles Yancey, who has held elected office longer than any of his African-American colleagues, voted no and said "The new map fails to create a fifth District of Color in the City of Boston." read more ...
June 16, 2012 - The Supreme Judicial Court has sided with Chuck Turner when it ruled that the Boston City Council removed Councilor Turner from office illegally.
The new SJC decision could entitle Turner to back pay. "It’s a moral and legal victory," said Turner’s lawyer, Chester A. Darling, who added, "Whenever a government abuses its authority, someone should push back." When the council convened to vote, Councilor Charles Yancey was the only one who went against the council's wishes when it moved to remove Turner from office by an 11-1 vote. Turner left City Hall the next day. The full story is available in the Boston Globe Newspaper.
Only one legislator of color was holding a leadership position in the Massachusetts Congress in 2015-2018. His name is Byron Rushing (in the photo). He has been appointed Assistant Majority Leader by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. More info is available on the Massachusetts Legislature leadership page. He is a presistent community leader and black history expert.
Basic Black on channel WGBH 2 is a Boston gem.
The television show is broadcast on air while viewers can interact with show panelist online. The Basic Black series covers issues affecting the black community.
View Basic Black episodes online. All previous shows can be viewed in their entirety. Programs air Friday night at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on PBS 2 and affiliated networks. Featured panelists are: Latoyia Edwards, NECN anchor; Phillip Martin, 89.7 WGBH Senior Investigative Reporter; the host is Callie Crossley and Kim McLaurin, author and adjunct professor at Emerson College appears on the show with special guests.
REMEMBERING NOV 3, 2009 night of - the nerve of Boston's intellectual elite was captured that year, when editorial page authors of neighborhood-focused newspapers advised readers to VOTE for two African Americans, and one Latino candidate for three of four possible Boston City Council at-large open seats. Elections are over, and the winners have emerged. An African-American woman won an at-large seat on the Boston City Council for the first time ever. Close by in Newton, Massachusetts an African American male was elected Mayor - the first popular-elected black mayor in Massachusetts history!
Courtesy of the National Museum of American History
Smithsonian photographers created this composite image of the Star-Spangled Banner in 2004 from 73 separate photographs. The flag's large size (30-by-34 feet) prevented photographers from capturing it in one image while conservators worked on it in the specially-built conservation lab.
Bruce Bolling, (April 29, 1945 – September 11, 2012) was a politician and businessman in Boston, Massachusetts. He served as the first black president of the Boston City Council in the mid-1980s.
Bolling served as a racial healer in the aftermath of Boston’s busing crisis in the 1970s. He was instrumental in urging for calm during the Charles Stuart case in which a white man sought to blame the murder of his wife and son on a fictional black man in Roxbury. The case caused a national racial uproar and led to police and community tensions that remain until today. As a city councilor, Bolling opposed efforts by some radicals in the black community to create a separate city called Mandela which would have led to so-called minority neighborhoods succeeding from Boston based upon perceived racial bias.
http://www.baystatebanner.com
Andrea J. Cabral, J.D. is the current Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety and was named to the post by Governor Deval Patrick the 12th of December, 2012. She took office in 2013 after resigning her rein as the first black female Sheriff in Massachusetts over the Suffolk County jurisdiction. She was appointed to the sheriff's position in 2002 by former Governor Jane Swift, elected to a full term in 2004 and re-elected in 2010.
In 2010, Sheriff Cabral was appointed to the Science Advisory Board (SAB) by United States Attorney General Eric Holder. The SAB is comprised of 18 experts - scholars and practitioners in criminology, statistics, sociology, criminal justice and juvenile justice - and was created by the DOJ's Office of Justice Programs to help bridge the divide between research and practice in the criminal justice fields. Sheriff Cabral is a graduate of Boston College and Suffolk University Law School.
We witnessed Ted Kennedy's last motorcade pass down Atlantic Ave turning the corner just before Commercial Street. This funeral procession was a huge affair turning out just as many people to the Faneuil Hall area as a 4th fireworks display. The first company I bootstrapped was located on that corner. It was familiar ground. I watched the funeral procession approach my corner. A retired Italian standing close said to me "Ted was a good man ... if it were not for him, I would not have been able to own a downtown parking lot. I made a fortune and I will miss that guy."
Union workers lined the streets holding signs in solitude to the Kennedy family's passing funeral motorcade. On August 27th at 4:15 p.m., it was rolling along The Big Dig. It went parallel to the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway where Ted's personal investment bootstrapped the construction of downtown greenway parks.
In 1974, Bill Owens became the first African-American elected to the Massachusetts state Senate. Dianne Wilkerson was the first African American woman elected to the Massachusetts Senate. Running on the Democratic party ticket, she took office in 1993 and lost the 2008 Primary election by a bit over 200 votes to challenger Sonia Chang-Diaz.
The Honorable Edward Brooke, was the first African American to be elected by popular vote to the United States Senate when he was elected as a Republican from Massachusetts in 1966. In 1866, the first African-American legislators in New England were elected.
Ralph Martin was the first African-American elected (1992 to 2002) Suffolk County (Boston) district attorney while Andrea J. Cabral was elected in 2004 when she became the first Black female Sheriff of Suffolk County.
There are three African American Boston City Councilors currently in office. Charles Yancey represents Mattapan (zip code 02126) and parts of Dorchester (zip codes 02120-02125), Ayanna Pressley is a city-wide councilor at-large and Tito Jackson represents Roxbury (zip code 02119).
Updates about the first Massachusetts African American politicians in Massachusetts are available.We recommend The Boston Banner newspaper archives where the oldest black media source stores news and information going way back. The Massachusetts Black Legislative Caucus is another source of information.
A HISTORY SHORT ABOUT BOSTON BLACK POLITICS: Ward 9 was home to Laurence Banks, Boston’s first black city councilor. Shag Taylor's drugstore on Tremont Street was the headquarters of Democratic politics in the black community going back to the days of Mayor James Michael Curley, noted the Banner archives.
Congresswoman Pressley. Play movie
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