Reflections from Judge Chernoff: Racism & Parochialism

By: Judge Paul A. Chernoff (ret.)

Fifty years ago, Massachusetts Corrections Commissioner John O. Boone stood out like two sore thumbs. He was black in a white corner of the nation and he was an outsider at a time and place where there was little tolerance for out-of-staters. John Boone was from far away, both geographically and culturally. He was recruited from Virginia with no ties to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and he certainly was not Irish Catholic. On St. Patrick’s day, his office staff here, in jest, told people that John O. Boone was really Commissioner O’Boone.

The mold in the early seventies, for the most part, was that law enforcement, corrections, and parole were dominated by the Irish, while Italians dominated public works, Jews mental health, and Anglo Saxon Yankees almost everything else including government, finance and education. Admittedly, there were some small pockets dominated by African Americans, Asians, Armenians, and Hispanics.

John Boone was a victim of both racism and parochialism. He broke the mold on parochialism but not on racism as that is still a work in progress one-half century later. John provided cover that enabled this out-of-state Jewish public defender from Washington, D.C to lead the state parole agency with little resistance from within and without. Moreover, real proof that John Boone shattered the parochial mold lies in the appointment of his successor, my friend Frank Hall, from North Carolina who was appointed Commissioner with little, if any, local resistance. We owe a debt of gratitude to the then Governor, the late Frank Sargent and the Executive Office of Human Services Secretary, Peter Goldmark, who courageously led us towards a more enlightened society.

By:

Judge Paul A. Chernoff (ret.)

April 16, 2023