8/4/2019 Niagara Movement

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City&RegionT h e B o s t o n G l o b e W e d n e s d a y , O c t o b e r 1 7 , 2 0 0 7

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ONLINE TODAY BOSTON.COM/CITY_REGIONBreaking news: Local updatesPolitics:All Politics are LocalNames: Continuing coverage

By Andrea EstesGLOBE STAFF

When Governor Deval Patrick unveiled his casino

plan last month, he said three destination resort casi-

nos would generate $100 million to help host com-

munities and their neighbors ease traffic and fight

crime, and to pay for public health programs like

compulsive gambling treatment and prevention.

But when the bill appeared last week, the amount

of money earmarked for community mitigation and

public health programs was only a fraction of what

the governor promised: $27 million.

Patrick aides said the discrepancy was a mistake,

an error committed during long days of drafting and

revising the 77-page,

landmark bill. The

administration said

nothing publicly about

the error, until it was

asked to explain the

differences yesterday

by the Globe.

We found a draft-

ing error shortly afterthe legislation was

filed, Patrick spokes-

man Kyle Sullivan said

in a written statement,

and we will be sub-

mitting corrective language that is consistent with

our plan once the bill is referred to an appropriate

committee.

The governor has said repeatedly since he publi-

cized the proposal last month that the community

impact mitigation and public health trust funds

would each receive 2.5 percent of the casinos gross

revenue. It is a crucial political selling point for the

governor, intended to ease worries about the negative

effects of introducing legalized gambling in three re-

gions of the state.

The mitigation money would help local communi-

ties pay for any increase in the cost of police and fire,

transportation, water and sewer services, and crimi-

nal prosecutions. The public health fund would pay

for gambling prevention and addiction services,domestic violence and child welfare programs.

Using the governors original assumption that the

three casinos would generate $2 billion in annual

gross revenue, there would be $50 million available

Programsface gapin casinopayoutsError in bill meansa fraction of funding

We dont have

enough money

to do everything

else they [the

administration]

promised.Michael Widmer

Massachusetts Taxpayer

Foundation

CASINO, Page B4

By David AbelGLOBE STAFF

The plump little beasts enjoy gorging on gar-

bage, which helps keep their teeth from growing

4 inches a year. But too much can frustrate theirefforts to squeeze through quarter-sized holes or

to scale sewage pipes and slink out of toilets.

They also have a tendency to outsmart pred-

ators such as Chuck Trainito, who has been

patrolling the streets in recent weeks with

weapons of rodent destruction.

The inimitable Norway rat a footlong

rodent with small ears, sharp claws, and a long

tail has become an increasingly familiar pres-

ence in Boston in recent years, from the alleys of

the Back Bay to the basements of Dorchester. In

fiscal 2007, city residents lodged 1,675 com-

plaints about rats, 38 percent more than the

year before and 23 percent above fiscal 2005,

according to the citys Inspectional Services

Department.

In the Back Bay, Beacon Hill, and Allston-

Brighton, complaints about rats have doubled

over the past fiscal year.

Earlier this month, a report issued by a

national rodent-control company rated Bostonas the third most likely city in the country to

confront a surge in the rat population over the

next few months, as the creatures begin their

breeding season.

TAILS of the CITYRats, rats, everywhere, but inspectors are ready and showing no mercy

GEORGE RIZER/GLOBE STAFF

Complaints about the Norway rat, with its small ears, sharp claws, and long tail, have doubled in some areas of Boston over the past year.

0

500

1,000

July 06-June 07

July 05-June 06

July 04-June 05

0

0

0

NUMBER OF

RAT-RELATED

COMPLAINTS

Cit

ywide

SOURCE: Boston InspectionalServices Department

DAIGO FUJIWARA/GLOBE STAFF

1,218

1,6751,365

138253

141

87190

66

114 123112

Back Bay/Beacon Hill

North End/Chinatown

Allston-Brighton

PHOTOS BY DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF

Chris Stockbridge (top) of InspectionalServices looked for illegal dumping, whileBrian Nguyen tried to chase a rat out of a pipe.RATS, Page B4

By Noah BiermanGLOBE STAFF

A tractor-trailer accident that shut

down the new U-turn lane on the Massa-

chusetts Turnpike yesterday has raised

questions about whether signs near the

ramp make it clear who can use it.

The lane, at the Allston-Brighton tolls,

was closed to traffic for more than four

hours yesterday while workers repaired

50 feet of aluminum guardrail that was

smashed when a tractor-trailer tried to

use the U-turn lane just before midnight

Monday.

The $1.6 million ramp, which opened

Saturday, is only open to taxicabs and

commercial vehicles with three axles. But

Eric Lamarque, a truck driver fromQuebec, said through a translator that he

believed he was following a detour and

Signs ofconfusionfor PikesU-turnDrivers are unclearon ramps limits

U-TURN, Page B4

By David Abel and John C. DrakeGLOBE STAFF

LEOMINSTER Two 16-year-old

boys were arraigned yesterday on charges

of possessing a handgun after one of their

fathers turned in the weapon and a list ofnames the boys allegedly had drafted,

police said.

The father delivered the .357-caliber

revolver to local police on Saturday and

the list of seven names, mainly of adults at

Leominster High School, said Leominster

Police Chief Peter Roddy.

He did not call the names, which were

handwritten on lined paper, a hit list.

We havent gotten to that point,

Roddy said. But we have interviewed all

of the people on the list, and we want

everyone to know that theres no risk at

this time. Whether there was potentialrisk is still being investigated.

The boys, whose names were not

released, were arrested at home Saturday

and arraigned in Fitchburg Juvenile

Court, each on a single count of un-

licensed possession of a firearm.

Roddy said the father later turned in

his own .22-caliber hunting rifle, as a pre-

caution. He said the father found the

handgun in his sons bedroom.

If theres any bright side of this story,

its that the parents took action, Roddy

said. They have fully cooperated. I have

to give them credit.He said the teenagers are cooperating

with police.

Tim Connolly, a spokesman for the

Worcester district attorneys office, said

that the boys would remain in custody

until their next court date and may face

additional charges. He did not know yes-

terday what date they would next appear.

Police informed school officials after

obtaining the list.

Nadine Binkley, superintendent of

Leominster public schools, declined to

comment on threats to teachers or other

school officials. She also declined to saywhether the school had previous prob-

lems with either student.

All I can say is that there is a thorough

2 teens arraigned after gun, list of names foundLeominster police sayfather turned in items

LEOMINSTER, Page B4

By April SimpsonGLOBE STAFF

T

he gathering of prominent black leaders and

activists at Faneuil Hall a century ago was a

pivotal moment in the history of the African-American civil rights movement and for

Boston, but it has been largely forgotten.

W.E.B. DuBois, Bostons William Monroe Trotter,

and scores of other organizers of the Niagara Move-

ment, a civil rights organization that spawned the

NAACP, met in 1907 to discuss how best to oppose

segregationist laws in the United States.

Disagreements among the 800 civil rights leaders

and activists from around the country widened a split

between DuBois and Trotter, fractured the young

Niagara Movement, and marked the start of Bostons

decline as a national political and social hub for African-

Americans.

Yesterday, local scholars and community leaders,

including Governor Deval Patrick, launched four days of

recognition and educational talks about the 1907

Boston meeting and its role in the citys history.

Organizers at the NAACP, the William Monroe

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AT AMHERST

In 1907, more than 800 people attended the Niagara Movement meeting in Boston. It was the firstmeeting that allowed women to participate as voting delegates.

Talks honorkey Boston rolein black history

NIAGARA MOVEMENT, Page B3

Woman is 2d crash victimA second Brockton Hospital employee

died yesterday, as Plymouth County

investigators tried to reconstruct events

that caused a Rockland woman to smash

her car into the building on Monday.B3

1 dead, 1 hurt in shootingA woman in her 30s was killed, and a man

was seriously injured in a double shooting

last night in Dorchester. The victims

names were not released. It was the 56th

homicide of the year in Boston. B2

GL B1 00:35 THIRD RED BLUE YELLOW Black

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W E DN E SD AY , O C TO B ER 1 7 , 2 0 07 City & Region B3T H E B O S T O N G L O B E

Trotter Institute at the University

of Massachusetts at Boston, and

other groups said they want to

teach young people about black

leaders who are often overlooked

in American history classes.

When our children are hard

pressed to name their family threeor four generations back, how can

you expect them to know such a

historic movement as the Niagara

Movement or the inception of the

NAACP? said the Rev. John M.

Borders, pastor of Morning Star

Baptist Church in Mattapan. Its a

whole new reeducation. Its a re-

evaluation of who we are as a peo-

ple that this could instigate, and

thats my hope.

The story of Bostons black her-

itage is frequently eclipsed by the

Boston Tea Party and other events

of the American Revolution, said

Janie Ward, professor and chair-

woman of the Africana studies

department at Simmons College.

We in Boston

need to be reminded

of the richness of this

history, and we need

to be reminded that

black folks have been

here for a very long

time, said Ward,

whose three-story

Cambridge house was

once the home of a

founder of the Niag-

ara Movement. This

is our city.

Black leaders

founded the Niagara Movement in

1905, nine years after the US Su-

preme Court decision, Plessy v.

Ferguson, permitted policies of ra-

cial segregation.

The Niagara Movement held its

first meeting on the Canadian side

of Niagara Falls and its second a

year later at Harpers Ferry, W.Va.,

where abolitionist John Brown leda raid to free enslaved Africans

nearly 50 years earlier.

Boston was chosen as the site

for the third annual meeting the

following year, because of its

abolitionist history and because it

was Trotters home base. Trotter, a

Harvard graduate, businessman,

and newspaper publisher, was

Bostons most prominent black

leader at the turn of the century

and was a large figure on the

national stage.

The Boston meeting was the

largest of the Niagara Movement

sessions and the first to include

women. Although

the organization

met twice more, the

session spelled the

movements end.

Tensions mounted

between DuBois

and Trotter at the

Boston meeting re-

garding the groups

leadership and par-

ticularly whether it

should include

whites in leadership

roles.

DuBois joined liberal whites

and helped found the NAACP in

1909. Trotter, who broke off to

form the National Equal Rights

League, and other black activists

felt that the NAACP was too radi-

cal and that it should not include

whites in leadership roles.

They were out of touch with

the racial politics of the time, saidKerri Greenidge, who teaches in

the African-American studies

department at Northeastern Uni-

versity.

With the black migration from

the South to the North and the be-

ginning of an economic downturn

in New England, theblack popula-

tion grew more slowly in Boston

than in cities like New York,

Chicago, and Philadelphia, said

state Representative Byron

Rushing, who is a historian.

Trotter was the last black lead-

er of national stature in Boston, he

said.

This actually represented the

end of that period of Boston being

involved in national activism in

the civil rights movement, said

Rushing. If you were going to

become a national leader you had

to be at a center of black activity.

There wasnt a Boston Renais-

sance, Rushing said. There was a

Harlem Renaissance.

The celebration kicked off yes-

terday with a ribbon-cutting cere-

mony at the State House, where

Patrick, the states first black gov-

ernor, signed autographs for mid-

dle school students and reflected

on the Niagara Movement and

Bostons civil rights past.

People were talking about

issues like lynching, how to deliver

the full panoply of rights and re-

sponsibilities that go with citizen-

ship to citizens who were black,

Patrick said in his remarks. That

work continues.

This weeks meetings willinclude panels on the decade that

produced Niagara and the NAACP,

and African-American womens

activism between the 1890s and

World War I.

US Representative James Cly-

burn, Democrat of South Carolina

and House majority whip, was ex-

pected to speak last night at a pri-

vate ceremony at UMass-Boston.

Organizers said the event will

prompt attendees to consider how

blacks should respond to develop-

ments like this years Supreme

Court decision that prohibits

schools from making race-based

assignments for students, and the

Jena 6 case, in which six black

teenagers in Jena, La., were arrest-

ed after a fight with a white stu-

dent.

Its shocking to receive still, in

2007, letters from people that

have been discriminated against

in public transportation, in

accommodations on private bus

lines . . . because of the color of

their skin, said Karen L. Payne,

president of the NAACPs Boston

branch. Were fighting the same

fight.

April Simpson can be reached at

asimpson@globe.com.

PAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBE STAFF

Governor Deval Patrick delivered the opening remarks at the

celebration marking the Niagara Movement yesterday.

Talks honor Boston role in black history NIAGARA MOVEMENTContinued from Page B1

We in Boston

need to bereminded of the

richness of this

history.Janie Ward,Africana

studies department,

Simmons College

By John R. EllementGLOBE STAFF

A second Brockton Hospital

employee died yesterday, as

Plymouth County investigators

tried to reconstruct the events that

caused a 76-year-old Rockland

woman to smash her car into the

building on Monday.

Susan M. Plante, a 20-year hos-

pital employee who was working

in the epicenter of the accident,

died at Massachusetts General

Hospital, authorities said.

Plante was in the reception

area of the radiology department

around 1:30 p.m. when the car

driven by Jane Berghold plowed

into the hospital. Also killed in the

crash was Dr. Mark A. Vasa, 58, of

Norwell, a radiation oncologist

and the hospitals chief of radia-

tion therapy.

Plante, 59, of East Bridgewater

had been airlifted to MGH after

the accident, according to Plym-

outh District Attorney Timothy J.

Cruzs office.

Plantes family released a state-

ment through the hospital. Susan

was a loving wife, mother, grand-

mother, and friend, the statement

said. She offered friendship and

love to everyone who came into

her life, including the many

patients she worked with every

day. She enjoyed celebrations, and

treated every day as a celebration

of life.

Plantes family also asked the

media to respect their privacy

while they mourned. Efforts tocontact Vasas relatives were

unsuccessful yesterday.

In a telephone interview, Cruz

said Brockton and State Police

were examining the 1991

Oldsmobile Delta 88 to see if

mechanical problems caused the

crash.

He also said investigators will

try to determine if Berghold was

under the influence of alcohol or

drugs. Bergholds husband told

the Globe his wife is a breast can-

cer patient.

At Cruzs request, the Registry

of Motor Vehicles indefinitelyrevoked Bergholds drivers license

on the grounds that she posed an

immediate public danger.

I thought that would be a

good move to make, given that

Berghold is a patient herself and

was involved in a crash that killed

two people, he said.

Bergholds 51-year-old son,

Peter, said in a telephone inter-

view that his mother has been

driving for more than 40 years

without any problems.

She is probably one of the

most cautious drivers on the plan-

et, he said. She is a very careful

driver. She has always been a good

driver.

Berghold was cited for causing

an accident in 1990, according to

the RMV, but has no other cita-

tions or violations on her driving

record.

Our prayers are going out to

these people, the victims, and

their families of the victims, said

Peter Berghold, who said his

mother is devastated. Shes pretty

well shook up about the whole

thing. This is not an easy thing to

go through for the relatives of the

victims or my mother, for that

matter.

Peter Berghold said his mother

described the crash to him. From

her perspective, she was making a

left hand turn to go park and

stepped on the brake, he said.

The events happened very quckly.

The next thing she knew, she

was inside the building, he said.

There was broken glass every-

where.Peter Berghold also said his

mother has not shown any loss of

mental acuity.

There are no mental issues

that I am aware of, said the son,

who lives in New Jersey. She is

very alert, very with it.

John Ellement can be reached at

ellement@globe.com.

2d victim succumbsin hospital crashInvestigatorscheck car for

malfunction

By Shelley MurphyGLOBE STAFF

A federal appeals court rejected

former FBI agent John J. Connolly

Jr.s bid for a new trial on federal

racketeering charges yesterday,ruling that it was unimpressed by

the quality of newly discovered

evidence that defense lawyers had

hoped would reopen the case.

The US Court of Appeals for

the First Circuit found there was

insufficient evidence to support a

Philadelphia mobsters assertion

that one of the key witnesses at

Connollys 2002 trial, former New

England Mafia boss Francis

Cadillac Frank Salemme, confid-

ed to him while the two mobsters

were in jail together that he had

lied on the stand.

Even if the mobsters version of

Salemmes alleged recantation

were true, the appeals court said it

would not prove that Connolly

was innocent or have any impact

on testimony by other witnesseswho identified Connolly as a cor-

rupt agent who leaked informa-

tion to longtime informants James

Whitey Bulger and Stephen

The Rifleman Flemmi and took

payoffs from them.

The three-judge panel affirmed

US District Court Judge Joseph L.

Tauros rejection of a new trial for

Connolly, writing, We cannot say

this evidence undermines our con-

fidence in the jurys verdict or jus-

tifies a finding that the district

court abused its discretion in fail-

ing to vacate the judgment and

order a new trial.

The court also found that

Connolly failed to back up his

accusation of prosecutorial mis-

conduct.

Connolly, 67, was sentenced to

10 years in prison following his

conviction on charges of racket-

eering, obstruction of justice, and

lying to an FBI agent about hisdealings with Bulger and Flemmi.

The former agent is in custody in

Miami, where he is scheduled to

stand trial in March on state mur-

der charges that he helped Bulger

and Flemmi orchestrate the 1982

gangland slaying of a Boston busi-

nessman with ties to Bulgers

gang.

Cambridge attorney E. Peter

Mullane, one of several lawyers

who represented Connolly in his

federal appeal, said he will appeal

the decision by the three-judge

panel to the entire First Circuit

court.

There is no doubt in my mind

that he was innocent, Mullane

said.

We cannot say this evidenceundermines our confidence in the

jurys verdict or justifies a findingthat the district court abused its

discretion in failing to vacate thejudgment and order a new trial.

US appeals court ruling

Appeals court rejectsformer FBI agentsbid for a new trial

John J. Connolly is serving a10-year prison sentence.

By Lisa WangsnessGLOBE STAFF

Governor Deval Patrick said

yesterday that he will lead a seven-

day trade mission to China in early

December, taking a team of busi-

ness executives, academic leaders,

and senior government officials to

Beijing and Shanghai.

The delegation, scheduled to

depart Nov. 30 and return Dec. 8,

will focus on finding ways for

Massachusetts leaders to collabo-

rate with their Chinese counter-

parts on clean energy, life sciences,

education, and transportation, the

governors office said.

In todays global economy,

competition is worldwide, and so

are the opportunities, Patrick said

in a press release.

Patricks office did not providea full list of those who will attend

the trade mission, but the admin-

istration said the group will

include representatives from the

legislative leadership, the Massa-

chusetts Technology Collabora-

tive, and the Massachusetts Port

Authority, as well as from Harvard

University and the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology.

The trip could help develop

more air and sea connections be-

tween China and Massachusetts;

Massport has been in discussions

with airlines about service to

China.

The giant countrys exploding

economy also makes it an obvious

place to look for new business

relationships.

Annie Johnson coexecutivedirector of the New England Clean

Energy Council, which represents

companies and organizations

working on solar, wind, and other

forms of clean energy said that

she expects to go and that several

of her groups members have also

been invited.

Joshua Boger, president and

chief executive of Vertex Pharma-

ceuticals Inc. of Cambridge, said

he also plans to attend.

In my business experience,

particularly for introductory

meetings and getting to make con-

tacts in business, theres no substi-

tute for face-to-face business inter-

actions, and this is a very efficient

way to do that, he said.

Patrick planstrip to Chinato boost trade

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