NEWS: 330 Year Old Law Banning Indians from Boston Repealed

The Massachusetts Legislature acted Thursday to repeal a law banning Indians from Boston that has been on the books for 330 years. In 1675, there was trouble between the early Boston colonists and Metacom, leader of the Wampanoag. The war lasted about a year, until Metacom was killed. The General court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony repealed a law allowing internment camps for the Wampanoag shortly thereafter, but the act allowing imprisonment for being within the city limits remained.



Gov. Mitt Romney's spokesman has said he will sign the repeal. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and the City Council had passed a petition on the matter last fall, but no action was taken on it until it made it to the full legislature this week. It is interesting to note the additional motivation for Massachusetts and Boston in particular, as the law stood in the way of $4.5 million in revenue from a national minority journalists organization considering the city for its 2008 convention. Apparently, having this law on the books was a "deal breaker" for the goup, Unity: Jounalists of Color Inc.

Well you learn something new everyday...very interesting.
Metacom (King Philip)

(1640-76)
Wampanoag (Pokanoket) sachem
Metacom (or Metacomet) personified native resistance to colonial power in southern New England in the seventeenth century. Puritan chroniclers celebrated his death, an event that marked the colonists' victory in the war named for him—King Philip's War—and that cemented English dominance in the region. Those who look less favorably on the Puritans' actions, on the other hand, celebrate Metacom's heroism and condemn those who pushed him to war.

Source

Sanc'.

That will stand Mitt Romney in good stead when he runs for president in 2008/2012.

We had a law like that here in GA, and also in our county it was a law against interacial marriage that was revoke also just two years ago.

Funny that our state politicians has taken so long to take care of laws like this.

While it is good they are repealing the law, I think perhaps there has been some bows and arrows rattling behind the scenes.

Back in 2003/2002 the same tribe asked the courts to transfer the title to some land froms present-day homeowners to the Wampanoags.

Its amazing, when one looks up old laws, how many outdated dumb laws are on the books. They havent been enforced in years, sometimes centuries, and people completly forgot about them, until they resurface later under unusual circumstances. Things like sodomy laws and such. Since they have been forgotten by younger and far more permissive generations, people become shocked when they hear that such laws exist. I honestly think its a matter of oversight. Since the laws became irrelevant long ago and got stuffed in some back room and forgotten, most law makers are unaware such laws exist so that they can repeal them.

I remeber reading the retarded list of old laws from many countries that were almost comical. Like, In pennsylvania, fvor instance, there is like a 280 year old law that gives a 5,000 dollar fine to anyone who bathes with their ducks on Sunday.

Say What?

You'd think that somebody would have the bright idea of just catagoricall repealing obsolete laws instead of individuall repealing every single one on the books as they came up.

Just make a law that says that if nobody is indicted for violation of a law for 100 years, the law in question immediately goes to the relevant executive (president or governor) for a simple yes or no decision on repeal.

The problem is that there are so many local, county, state and federal laws out there that it's near impossible to look at all of them. Personally I never knew such a law existed. It was probably just a matter of it was lost in the lawbooks for so long nobody knew of it.