Patrick, Deval

Source:

 African American National Biography

Patrick, Deval

(31 July 1956– ),

governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, was born in Chicago, Illinois, the only son of Emily Wintersmith Patrick and Laurdine (Pat) Patrick, a musician. Reared on the south side of Chicago by his mother, since his parents separated when he was four, and with his sister, Rhonda Patrick-Sigh, he attended Chicago Public Schools. Challenged by poverty and always seeking educational opportunities, his mother supported his application to A Better Chance, an organization dedicated to securing positions in independent and public schools for children of color. In 1970 Milton Academy in Massachusetts became the springboard for his stellar academic career. He graduated from Harvard University in 1978 cum laude with an AB in English and American Literature, becoming the first member of his family to receive a college degree, and Harvard Law School in 1982. During the intervening year between college and law school, he worked with a United Nations program in the Darfur region of the Sudan and traveled in Africa.

Deval Laurdine Patrick's first professional position was as a law clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Los Angeles, California, where he met his wife, Diane Bemus. A native of New York City, she graduated from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and specialized in labor and employment law. Following his fiancée's career in 1983, the couple moved to New York City, where he secured a position as a staff attorney with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense Fund. In a voting rights case, Patrick sued the State of Arkansas under the leadership of Governor William Clinton.

The Patricks were married in Brooklyn on 5 May 1984, and by 1986 the family had declared Massachusetts their home. They soon purchased a house in Milton, situated on Patrick's old high school paper route, residing there with their two daughters, Sarah and Katherine. Patrick continued his legal career as a partner in Boston firm Hill & Barlow, handling commercial and civil rights litigation.

Having continued communications with Patrick since his tenure with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, in 1994 President Clinton nominated him for-the position of assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. After his Senate confirmation, Patrick took over the agency primarily responsible for enforcing federal laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, and disability, reporting to-Attorney General Janet Reno. By 1996, alarmed by a-growing number of suspicious fires at predominantly black churches in the South, Patrick was at the center of a Justice Department investigation into arsonist activities with potential civil rights violations.

The Patrick family returned to Boston in 1997 and, for the next two years, the seasoned litigator practiced as a partner with Day, Berry & Howard. Corporate America's Fortune 50 energy company, Texaco sought his services to address the company's tarnished record and reputation burdened by an unprecedented settlement of $115 million in an employment race discrimination class action suit. Patrick took the reins as vice president and general counsel responsible for global legal affairs. In 2001 he moved to the multinational soft drink giant, Coca-Cola Company, where he served as executive vice president, general counsel, and secretary.

Patrick's plans to seriously explore a run for the highest office in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts coincided with the 2004 Democratic National Convention held in Boston. He consulted first with family and friends to discuss his ambitions and plans and then visited with a broad cross-section of leaders. The Democratic Party had already selected its candidate and asked the newcomer to state politics to wait his turn. Undeterred, Patrick sought the support of the many disengaged citizens. Crisscrossing the state, he met with residents in their homes, community centers, restaurants, businesses, and anywhere groups gathered to hear his message.

Patrick's campaign of civic engagement ignited a disinterested electorate resulting in a powerfully organized show of support at party caucuses held in February 2006. Those delegates elected at the caucuses gathered at the Democratic State Convention in June, casting their votes and displaying overwhelming support for Patrick when he took the podium as the favored winner. After his resounding success at the convention, two opposing Democratic candidates, better funded and better known, attempted to gain ground. Patrick's campaign continued to recruit volunteers and to raise dollars using the Internet, decisively capturing 50 percent of the vote in the Democratic Primary in September. The primary won, there were three opposing candidates in the general election. The most viable was Republican Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, leaving Massachusetts to elect either the first woman or African American chief executive officer.

On 7 November 2006 Patrick's inspired campaign for the corner office increased voter turnout, causing some polling places to run out of ballots. With 40,000 contributors and volunteers waging a grassroots strategic organizing campaign that spanned the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Patrick emerged as the first Democratic governor in sixteen years, since Michael Dukakis returned to private life in 1991. Patrick was the only African American governor elected in 2006 and only the second in the nation's history.

Patrick took his oath of office on 4 January 2007 with his hand placed upon the Mendi Bible, given to President John Quincy Adams for his successful defense before the U.S. Supreme Court of the kidnapped Africans in the Amistad decision of 1841. The inauguration ceremony was held before a joint session of the Massachusetts legislature on the steps of the state capitol before a massive crowd of devoted supporters.

Patrick was re-elected Governor of Massachusetts in November 2010. While his share of the vote dropped from 56 percent to 48 percent, many pundits had predicted his defeat, in part because of the significant national opposition to the Democratic Party, which had resulted in a Republican victory in the state’s U. S. Senate race to replace Ted Kennedy earlier that year, and which delivered the House to the GOP in the 2010 midterm elections. Patrick nonetheless overcame his frosty relations with the Democratic leaders of the state house and senate (notably over plans to allow casinos in the state); his increase of the state sales tax; and an increase in state unemployment, to defeat his opponent by 150,000 votes.

processed xml | source xml