Excerpts from “Bay State Bravado,” from the Dec. 15, 2005 edition of Diverse.
By Ronald Roach
As a bright and ambitious youngster growing up poor in Southside Chicago, Deval L. Patrick won a scholarship to Milton Academy, a private Massachusetts boarding school, courtesy of the acclaimed “A Better Chance” initiative. Considered a pioneering educational outreach program, A Better Chance has assisted thousands of talented yet disadvantaged minority students. Attending the prestigious and rigorous prep school altered the course of Patrick’s life. He flourished at Milton before going on to earn two degrees from Harvard University, lead civil rights enforcement at the U.S. Department of Justice during the Clinton administration and oversee diversity efforts at a Fortune 500 corporation then under legal scrutiny for racial discrimination.
Patrick’s educational background, although far from traditional, is a resounding success story. So, it should not come as a surprise that he has strong views about education reform, which he would like to see tested, especially in his adopted state of Massachusetts. Nearly a year ago, the civil rights attorney then seeking the Democratic Party nomination for governor, spoke to Diverse: Issues In Higher Education about, among other things, education and the lessons of diversity.
Patrick first came to national prominence upon his nomination for assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department, the nation’s top civil rights post, in 1994. Harvard University Professor Lani Guinier was initially nominated to the position, but the Clinton White House failed to defend her from attacks by conservative critics. Patrick’s nomination went more smoothly, and after his confirmation by the U.S. Senate, he established himself as a capable civil rights watchdog. As the most prominent civil rights lawyer in the government, Patrick investigated church burnings throughout the South in the mid-1990s, prosecuted hate crimes and abortion clinic violence and enforced the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Patrick returned to private law practice in 1997, and was federally appointed to chair Texaco oil company’s Equality and Fairness Task Force after the company settled a major race discrimination lawsuit. As chair of the task force, Patrick led efforts that evaluated and rebuilt the oil company’s employment system to establish an equitable work environment. He has since served as Texaco’s vice-president and general counsel, and as executive vice-president and general counsel for the Coca-Cola Co.
