By Bill Wright and Barry Lawton
February 24, 2021
Doris Bunte
Doris Bunte, who died on Feb. 15 at age 87, was a wonderful woman, a magnificent mentor, and a prodigious politician. The word that describes her best is “Mother.” Doris was that, yes, and also a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother. She was also a mother to many more than her biological offspring.
As the first African-American woman elected to the Massachusetts Legislature, she was a political trailblazer who was involved in politics for all of the right reasons: She wanted to use political action to improve the lives and the living conditions of Black people in Boston’s neighborhoods whose needs were, sometimes, overwhelming. She wanted to give Black and Brown people a voice, and a seat, at the tables where political decisions were made at the local, state and federal levels – it was a voice that had rarely been heard in those settings.
Downtown Boston. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
This Black History Month, we ve been shining a light on various aspects of the Black experience in Boston.
We ve remembered pioneering legends such as former state Rep. Doris Bunte and architect Donald Stull, and have taken stock of how those communities hit hardest by the coronavirus are tackling equity and hesitancy in the vaccine rollout.
Today, we speak with three Black professionals who are part of Boston s business community, and discuss their experiences working in this city, and working to diversify it racially, economically and otherwise.
We re joined by Teri Williams, president and COO of Boston-based OneUnited Bank, the country s largest Black-owned bank. Also with us is Kristen Ransom, co-owner of IncluDe Innovation and IncluDe Web Design, and Sheena Collier, founder of the membership networks Boston While Black and The Collier Connection.
A groundbreaking Black woman in state and city government, Doris Bunte dies at 87
By Bryan Marquard Globe Staff,Updated February 15, 2021, 7:56 p.m.
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Mrs. Bunte (left, with longtime friend Deborah McBraver) was honored by the Boston Housing Authority in 2018, with the Walnut Park Apartments renamed the Doris Bunte Apartments.Jonathan Wiggs
Doris Bunte arrived in Boston in 1953 with 98 cents to her name â and then a dime less after she bought a candy bar â before rising to become, for a time, arguably the most powerful woman in Boston politics.
âI think I was born working,â she said with a smile in a 1974 Globe interview. âI pasted feathers on hats and painted buttons on spindles. Then I folded towels and did domestic work for rich people in Brookline.â
Simply put, Doris Bunte was a warrior. From the time she arrived in Boston in the late 1950s, she was on a quest to make life better for working people, and she was fierce in that pursuit.