Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is the first African American to hold that office. A member of the Democratic Party, Patrick served as United States Assistant Attorney General under President Bill Clinton.
Patrick was born on the South Side of Chicago, where his family resided in a two-bedroom apartment in Robert Taylor Homes housing projects. In 1959, his father Laurdine "Pat" ...
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Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is the first African American to hold that office. A member of the Democratic Party, Patrick served as United States Assistant Attorney General under President Bill Clinton.
Patrick was born on the South Side of Chicago, where his family resided in a two-bedroom apartment in Robert Taylor Homes housing projects. In 1959, his father Laurdine "Pat" Patrick, a member of jazz musician Sun Ra's band, left his wife Mae (née Wintersmith),, their son Deval, and their daughter, Rhonda (who is one year Deval's senior) in order to play music in New York City and because he had fathered a daughter by another woman. Deval reportedly had a strained relationship with his father, who opposed his choice of high school, but they eventually reconciled. Patrick was raised by his mother, Mae, who traces her roots to American slaves in the American South, in the state of Kentucky.
While Patrick was in...
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