Stories

Wu says Boston will work to be prepared for future hate group demonstrations

July 5, 2022

Law enforcement was caught off guard by a white supremacist group’s demonstration in Boston last weekend, according to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. Both Wu and U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Rachael Rollins said they were told by Boston Police and the FBI that neither agency had advance warning that about 100 members of the group Patriot…

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2 insurance companies end relationship with Maine agency after racist Juneteenth sign

June 22, 2022

Updated June 22, 2022 at 5:56 PM ET Residents in the town of Millinocket, Maine, say they are outraged and disappointed after a local insurance agency displayed a racist sign remarking on the Juneteenth holiday. Progressive and Allstate are terminating their relationships with the agency, according to representatives of the insurance companies. “Juneteenth ~it’s whatever……

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It is happening here: Massachusetts has a growing neo-Nazi movement

May 18, 2022

It was a rare look inside the strategic planning of an upstart neo-Nazi movement. In a video posted last summer on social media, Chris Hood, 23, the founder of the Nationalist Social Club – 131, a New England white nationalist collective, gave instructions to a 22-year-old UMass Lowell student named Liam MacNeil. “If you’re in…

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Cecilia Dixon stands on Harvard Street, Dorchester, by her new home.

Boston’s racial homeownership gap has widened. What will it take to fix it?

April 1, 2022

House hunting in Boston can often feel like one of those reality TV dating shows. There’s the first meeting, where you and a dozen or so other contestants circle the object of your desire. You fall in love, maybe make a proposal, and then more likely than not … you get rejected. This is the…

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480 West Broadway describes itself as an "18 unit condo project" under construction on the corner where East and West Broadway meet.

Boston gets billions in home loans, but white areas get ‘much bigger piece of the pie’

March 31, 2022

Homeownership is the primary way most Americans build wealth. And for most people, buying a home doesn’t happen without a mortgage loan. Altogether, home loans amount to billions of dollars flowing into Boston every year. But this infusion of money doesn’t reach all parts of the city equally. A WBUR analysis finds lenders make a…

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A "For Sale" sign by a house on Ballou Ave. in Mattapan.

Black and Hispanic people are more likely to be denied mortgage loans in Boston

March 30, 2022

Owning a home is considered part of the so-called American dream. But for Black and Hispanic Bostonians, it is more often a dream denied. A new WBUR analysis of mortgage lending in Boston from 2015-2020 found lenders denied mortgages to Black applicants at three times the rate of white applicants. Hispanic applicants were twice as…

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The front exterior of the Berkshire Museum is one of six institutions in central and western Massachusetts that -- according to a government inventory -- still have the remains of native people not yet repatriated. The museum is starting the process of repatriation.

‘Bone dust in my skin’: How a legacy of racism has left nearly 117,000 native ancestors not at rest

March 8, 2022

For centuries, archeologists and amateur collectors looted Native American graves in Massachusetts and across the country, taking the remains of people — and the objects that were buried with them. Sometimes farmers or developers unearthed people unintentionally. They were given to museums, universities and even libraries. Institutions have reported to the government they have the…

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White nationalist protesters gather outside Brigham and Women's Hospital during a rally Jan. 22, 2022.

Neo-Nazis target anti-racist doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, calling them ‘anti-white’

February 2, 2022

On Saturday, Jan. 22, about two dozen white nationalists dressed in identical beige khaki pants and dark hoodies protested in front of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston holding a bedsheet with black lettering reading “B and W Hospital Kills Whites.” They passed out flyers condemning by name two doctors associated with the hospital and…

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A deed from Springfield, Mass., in 1916 states that “sad lot shall not be resold to a colored person, a Polander or in Italian.” This language appears on the deeds for at least four separate properties in Hampton County.

Racist covenants still stain property records. Mass. may try to have them removed

January 22, 2022

In the bedroom community of Wilmington, Mass., just south of Lowell, sits a little white house, with paint peeling from the trim and a mailbox emblazoned with the American flag at the end of the driveway. Homeowners Edward Kaizer and his wife Mary Tassone-Kaizer say the house has been in the family for generations. But…

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NH Supreme Court III

Teachers’ union and parents sue N.H. officials over law restricting teachings on racism, oppression

December 13, 2021

A New Hampshire teachers’ union is suing state officials over a law restricting certain teachings on race, racism, and other forms of oppression. The American Federation of Teachers – New Hampshire filed the lawsuit along with several parents and teachers in federal court. The lawsuit alleges the law prevents teachers from meeting certain state educational…

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