Supporters hope Patrick victory could change state's reputation

[jmm]

Two days after my election I’m still ecstatic about my new governor :woohoo:. I can’t remember agreeing with another candidate on more issues and I think he’ll do a great job. Having said that I hope his victory as only the second African American governor in our nation’s history, as well as the prominence of others such as Obama, isn’t used to dismiss the problems that still exist.

Supporters hope Patrick victory could change state's reputation

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The nurse practitioner was one of hundreds of black people who supported and campaigned for Deval Patrick, who yesterday became Massachusetts' first-ever black governor. She was also hopeful that Patrick's appointment could mean a friendlier, warmer Massachusetts for the legions of people of color who think the state has a race problem.

"Our reputation is so bad," said Claude. "But this is a turn around - a new beginning."
Inside the cavernous building in the Back Bay, African Americans spoke of how Patrick's election brought excitement and promise. Instead of seeing Massachusetts as the state where a black man was speared by an American flag-bearing white man in the 1970s,

"If anything, this might bridge the gap between the communities," said Shero Malik, 25, of West Bridgewater, who is Pakistani.

Gushed Denyse Bardouille, who works for the state and is black: "I am overjoyed, overwhelmed, overcome by this man's integrity, this man's class and this man's honesty. How can you not like this man? He's every mother's son."

But many other Patrick supporters of color, though celebratory, were cautious, saying while it's terrific he is governor, they didn't think that alone would change race relations in the state.

"If anything, it'll be harder for him because he's black," said Shetia Diggs, 19, of Roxbury, who was selling water at a kiosk in the hallway. "They're going to have him under a microscope."

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http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/candidates/articles/2006/11/08/supporters_hope_patrick_victory_could_change_states_reputation/

Elections ‘06: Identities Politics

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We’re wondering if, in this Tiger Woods era in golf, we’re watching a Barack Obama trend coming in politics — not the notion of Obama as the great Democratic hope, but a complexifying of ethnic and other identities where skin color means many things or nothing, and the Irish vote may mean less than, say, “defense moms” or “Log Cabin Republicans.” For example: What does it mean — if anything — when pundits and pollsters talk today about the Latino or black votes as monolithic entities? What about Cubans in Miami, who supposedly vote Republican? There are still many Italian-Americans in Rhode Island. But is there an Italian vote there? Or an Irish vote in Boston?

MoveOn.org, Focus on the Family, NARAL and the NRA may have replaced local, ethnic political machines, but have they supplanted them? Which of our identities matter most when we pull the voting booth curtain closed behind us?

http://www.radioopensource.org/elections-06-identities-politics/

The Wikipedia entry on Deval Patrick

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deval_Patrick

Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American politician, who is the Governor-elect of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. On November 7, 2006 Patrick became the first African-American elected governor of the state of Massachusetts, and only the second in United States history. He will take office in January of 2007. Prior to entering politics, Patrick worked as an attorney and businessman. He and his wife Diane Patrick have lived in Milton since 1989. They have two daughters, Sarah and Katherine.

Patrick was born on Chicago's South Side in 1956, into an African-American family living on welfare and residing in a one-bedroom apartment. His father Pat Patrick, a member of jazz musician Sun Ra's band, left his wife Emily, son Deval, and daughter Rhonda in order to play music in New York City.<1> While in middle school, one of Deval's teachers referred Deval to A Better Chance, a national non-profit organization for identifying, recruiting and developing leaders among academically gifted students of color, which enabled him to attend Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts.<2><3>

Patrick graduated from Milton Academy in 1974 and from Harvard University in 1978. He then spent a year working with the United Nations in Africa. In 1979, Patrick returned to the United States and enrolled at Harvard Law School. While in law school, Patrick was elected president of the Legal Aid Bureau, where he first worked defending poor families in Middlesex County.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deval_Patrick

[bobbieinok]

1. Edward Brooke (R-MA) the 1st popularly elected black US senator

I was in grad school in the 60s. When I 1st heard of his election, I was so sure he was a democrat.

Very few people remember him. I find it stunning that the republicans never mention him when they claim to want African-American votes. A few years ago I read that today's republican party doesn't want anything to do with him b/c his views were so different from today's republican agenda.

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000871

BROOKE, Edward William, III, (1919 - )


Senate Years of Service: 1967-1979
Party: Republican


BROOKE, Edward William, III, a Senator from Massachusetts; born in Washington, D.C., October 26, 1919; attended the public schools of Washington, D.C.; graduated from Howard University, Washington, D.C., in 1941; graduated, Boston University Law School 1948; captain, United States Army, infantry, with five years of active service in the European theater of operations; chairman of Finance Commission, city of Boston 1961-1962; elected attorney general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1962; reelected in 1964; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1966; reelected in 1972 and served from January 3, 1967, to January 3, 1979; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1978; first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote; lawyer; awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on June 23, 2004; is a resident of Miami, Fla.