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March 24, 2005

Toward an empowered electorate

The African American and Latino electorate is becoming sophisticated. For a long time the challenge was to induce the citizens to register. Then the problem was to get the registered voters to the polls. The task now is the most difficult of all, to motivate the community to vote strategically.

For many who were denied any hope of political power for so long, the achievement is merely getting to the polls. But now they discover that there is much more involved than simply showing up at the polls on election. It is important to stay informed so that you can cast your vote to win. After all, the real objective is to develop political power.

There was a special problem in the recent election to replace Thomas Finneran, the former speaker of the House who represented the 12th Suffolk District for 26 years. The demographics of the district had changed substantially over the years. Now roughly 67 percent of the residents are people of color. For some time they have wanted a state rep. who was more sensitive to their interests.

When Finneran resigned, five candidates came forward to replace him. Three of the candidates were black. There was the danger that if the blacks split their votes evenly among the three candidates, then Eric Donovan could win. Donovan favors the death sentence and is described as a clone of Finneran on conservative social issues.

If Donovan won there would be no real changing of the guard. The “new Boston” would run aground in the 12th District. In his concession speech Donovan confirmed this view when he is reported to have said about the Democrats, “this party is going in the wrong direction.” Donovan seemed to be critical of the concept of racial diversity.

Sen. Dianne Wilkerson was aware of the political problem so she called upon two of the minority candidates to withdraw in favor of Linda Dorcena Forry, who ran a solid campaign and was substantially ahead in the polls. Fortunately, the voters understood the strategy and Dorcena Forry won over second place Donovan 2770 to 1445.

Community voters are becoming more committed and more sophisticated. Their next challenge is to become involved in the electoral process early on so that they can have a greater voice in determining who the candidates will be.

Welcome black engineers

Another substantial black convention has arrived in Boston this week. The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) has arrived for five days of seminars, networking and pursuit of employment opportunities. It seems that the myth about Boston’s exceptional bigotry is wearing thin.

The NSBE was organized in the 1960s at Purdue University after 80 percent of the freshmen dropped out of the engineering program. Since then national headquarters have been established in Alexandria, Virginia and membership has grown to about 15,000. The NSBE is now the largest student-managed organization in the country.

Although black students are now enrolled in engineering programs at schools across the country, historically black colleges and universities still graduate about one-third of the black students to receive engineering degrees every year.

The Bay State Banner welcomes the NSBE, and we hope its members have the opportunity to explore the wealth of black history here.

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