boston

In 1998, I went undercover as a motorist, driving with a friend through Brookline at 1 a.m. to determine how long it would take for police in the town to pull over a Black motorist. We lasted 20 minutes before three cruisers boxed us in on Beacon Street. An officer asked us whether we were lost and noted that I was from Roxbury.

One of the two Black state representatives expelled from Tennessee’s legislature this week, Justin J. Pearson, attended church at Union Methodist when he lived in Boston — and he continues to Zoom in for services regularly.

Mayor Michelle Wu has announced Paul Chong’s appointment to serve as the city of Boston’s next registrar.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are paying a visit to Boston. Well, their images are. Boston is the final stop on “The Obama Portraits Tour,” an exhibition of the presidential portraits of the couple. The portraits will be on view at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston through Oct. 30.

A few dozen people gathered in a conference room of the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building in Roxbury last Wednesday for a historic meeting as the city’s Black Men and Boys Commission held its first public listening session, and first formal public appearance, in the organization’s history.

In the year 2021, as was the case in 2020, news around the globe was dominated by a microscopic virus that has brought the world to its knees. Yet 2021 in Boston also was a year of historic political firsts — with four women running for mayor and a new crop of Black, Latino and Asian politicians who have redrawn the political landscape in the city.

Councilors Liz Breadon and Lydia Edwards have filed legislation to modernize and reform involuntary private vehicle towing and relocation practices in Boston

Police are investigating a Winthrop double murder of a Black man and a Black woman as a hate crime.

“In 2021, Boston will rise up again. We will leave no one behind, and our city will be stronger than ever.”

On June 12, Company One Theatre (C1) launched their Better Future Series, a monthly online discussion among artists, community organizers and policymakers about the future of neighborhoods around Boston.

MBTA trains have derailed 50 times over the last five years. In that same amount of time, Gov. Charlie Baker has laid off 20% of the maintenance workers who are charged with keeping the trains on track, transit equity advocates say. 

Despite periodic conflicts, it is far better to reflect on the human commonality between blacks and the Irish rather than revert to the antagonistic mindset that prevailed on North Sentinel Island.