my chance to ask him if he would be with us when he launched progressive democrats of america at roxbury the last day that the democrats met in two thousand and four and we nominated john kerry and john conyers was there that was to launch a progressive democrats of america was a long road but it made a lot of sense working both inside and outside of congress to bring about change and being part of the social movement we were the electoral arm and it was great to have congressman conyers with us to help us to bring out a connection together in two thousand and four two thousand and eight excuse me two thousand and four for roxbury two thousand and eight he was back in s.p.d. it grew and continues to grow and we've been at every national convention since that's extraordinary now there's no actual connection between progressive democrats america p.d. america dot org and the democratic party right now legal connection you guys are not part of the party you don't you know dance with the party is a necessary no that's that's fair to say we sexuality for yourselves as the insurgents were the f

after lexington and concord as cambridge and roxbury filled up with militiamen warren would be a lotdid president of the provincial congress. he was also the leading light of the committee of safety so in effect he was the leader of the legislative body and the executive body. he was way overtaxed in terms of what he had to do but his standing was so high that people in massachusetts felt that there was no one else who could do it. this was a 33-year-old man. by this time is for children and his new fiancÉe were in worcester and he was managing things in cambridge. during those 60 days he was the one overseeing the creation of a war, of an army and it was the battle of bunker hill approach. he was named a major general and so from the beginning he had decided that if it should turn to war, he wanted to be in the fighting. he would be at the battle of bunker hill and he would die at the very end of the battle and thus become a hero. because he died, many of us have never heard his story. and just a word on the battle of bunker hill. it began as a mess. it was not supposed to be that w

of land known as the neck that was as narrow as 100 yards at high tide in some places that led to roxbury. then it was this island dominated by three hills almost of mountainous proportions with a small town of 15,000 people crammed into a group of houses in the north and south ends. this was an island and it was easily, after lexington and concord the patriot inhabitants fled al to. they would be about 3000 nonmilitary people left in the city. most of them loyalists, refugees and a smattering of patriots who decided to leave, decided to stay so they could look after their houses along with 9000 soldiers. so boston became a city under siege as paid trip militia who had been involved in the skirmishes of lexington and concord and towns well beyond flooded cambridge and roxbury on either side of boston and literally surrounded the city. so boston was now the former center of defiance was a british garrison under it a patriots siege. now the point of the siege is to cut off the city and starve it to death. this wasn't going to happen in boston because the english had the navy, the british na

. >> reporter: when nelson mandela visited madison park high school in roxbury, massachusetts, in 1990. >> the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. >> reporter: cele celestino dep was a sophomore in the gym that day. >> the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow, and at the time that was a quote that really stuck to my head and to this day i try to instill the same concept in my students. >> reporter: mandela's speech was a turning point in depina's young life. he decided he, too, wanted to lead from the classroom as a teacher. >> okay. the word "freedom," but freedom is not free. >> reporter: now he's a history teacher at brighton high school in boston, hoping to be a role model in a school where more than one in ten students drop out. born to poor immigrant parents in the west african nation of cape verde, depina knows well barriers to a child's success. >> i use my hardships as a motivation. today as an educator, i tell my students, well, don't use your personal issues as an impediment for not coming to school and not succeeding in school. as a matter of fact, use that as

by chance to ask him if he would be with us when he launched progressive democrats of america at roxbury the last day that the democrats met in two thousand and four and we nominated john kerry and john conyers was there and that was the launch for president. across america was a long road but it made a lot of sense working both inside and outside of congress to bring about change and being part of the social movement we were the electoral arm it was great to have congressman conyers with us to help us to bring out a connection together in two thousand and four two thousand eight hundred sixty two thousand and four for roxbury two thousand he was back again s.p.d. grew and continues to grow and we've been at every national convention since that's extraordinary now there's no actual connection between progressive democrats of america p.t. america dot org and the democratic party right now legal connection you guys are not part of the party you don't you know dance with the party is a necessary no that's that's fair to say we certainly did for yourselves as the insurgents were the first hi

. >> reporter: when nelson mandela visited madison park high school in roxbury, massachusetts, in 1990 crowd went wild. eager to hear his words of wisdom. >> the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. >> reporter: a 16-year-old sophomore in the gim nassium that day. >> the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. and at the time that was one of the things that really stuck to my head. so this day i try to instill the same concept in my students. >> reporter: mandela's speech was a turning point in his young life. he decided he too wanted to lead from the classroom as a teacher. >> okay. the word freedom, but freedom is not free. >> reporter: now he's a history teacher at brighton high school in boston, hoping to a model in a school where more than one in ten students drop out. born to poor immigrant parents in the west african nation of cape verde, dipina knows well the barriers to a child's success. >> i used my-- as a motivation. today as an education-- educator i tell my students don't use your personal issues as an impediment, to come to school. sues it as a motivation. bec

concord and towns well beyond flooded cambridge and roxbury on either side of boston and literally surrounded the city. so boston was now the former center of defiance was a british garrison under it a patriots siege. now the point of the siege is to cut off the city and starve it to death. this wasn't going to happen in boston because the english had the navy, the british navy with ships or off the harbor and you know today the town of nantucket nantucket -- excuse me, the town of boston is now the city of boston and it's almost unrecognizable to the way it was. many of those hills that once defined the island that was lost and were shaved down to fill in the back bay, the back bay was a day. it was water. then upon sunriver came in much closer than it does now. what is now washington as you walk that end, that was the neck as you come and from now the south bend into boston. this was an island and one of dozens of islands that occupy gigantic boston harbor. they had ships scattered throughout the harbor in strategic areas and cap the entrance opens so that they could get revisions whether t

so when i arrived as a prosecutor in the roxbury of boston, it was a differenten neighborhood than theeople were being stopped, harassed and arrested for all the things we used to do in the suburbs with impunity. so i got to the point of working in the system for a number of years and sort of banging my head against the wall in trying to sort of you know to change those things and to change what i had seen. and so eventually i got to the point where i said i need to switch things up a little bit. i need to find a better wa i. >> once you got arrested what was the most surprising thing to you? >> there were a lot of surprising things. the first being that i had expected to get arrested that night. you know -- >> it can to be you awhile. you had to go back for a few days and take a reporter with you. >> right. i had a suit on that day because i was expecting to go right in front of the guard to paint the gate and see the system. so after that didn't happen i'm sort of sitting there at the subway station like what do i do. in this is crazy. trying day after day after day and not being suc

from growth hall to the north end, boden to west roxbury, we know mayor menino will be there for us in our moment of greatest triumphs. ribbon cutting for new parks, world series victories, new citizenship and a child's graduation. and we know he will be there for us in our moments of great tragedy -- the death of a loved one, terror in copley square. of course, he could not have done it alone. by his side for all these years, he has had angela mendoza-martinez. angela is a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother. to all of us in boston, she was not just a first lady but a first friend. angela championed causes that ofng went unheralded in the press, supporting women and children, employment, and education and fighting to end homelessness. today we thank angela as well for helping make our city into a warm and thriving community. almost 400 years ago on a ship sailing from england to the new world, john winthrop declared that the new city they would found, bos boston, would be a cy upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us. and if that experiment, our city, was to succeed, he said,

newsmen barking updates that changed nothing, whitney imagined the young black boy she was tutoring in roxburyd never see him again. who could black people bleen in. the book is "loss of innocence." do you have trouble selling books? you sell about 8 million books every time one comes out. >> my children have their needs. i often say alimony and tuition are great inspiration to your art. >> 1968, though, was such a cataclysmic, compelling year that in my opinion affects us still today as does the war in vietnam affects us still today. give us the root the nature of this story? >> well, essentially it concerns whitney who is a 21-year-old graduate. she comes to put the finishes touches on her wedding. over the summer everything changes. her relationship with her mother, father, best friend, certificate, her sense of where she wants to go in the world. through a few shock events towards the end of her summer her life is turned upside down. i tried to do through whitney what happened to american women at the time because the feminist movement was one of the most dramatic and long lasting of the m