Events, Projects and News

On Monday, January 21, 2013, the City of Melrose celebrated the legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 50th Anniversary of his monumental “I Have a Dream” speech. 

The Melrose Human Rights Commission, in partnership with Mayor Robert Dolan and the Lincoln Elementary School Site Council, was pleased to sponsor the 10th Annual International Welcoming Reception on November 8th. The event was held at the Lincoln School.

The International Welcoming Reception occurs annually for new city residents. In celebration of both community and diversity, the event offers a forum from which attendees are able to meet their neighbors and local leaders while sharing a meal together. The potluck dinner features food from various countries. Approximately 100 people attended this year’s event, representing various countries from five continents. 

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January 11  

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Maureen Buzby, Co-Chair grew up in Vermont but has lived all her adult life in the Boston area, the past 30 years in Melrose. A member of the Planning Committee of the Melrose Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, a mentor in the Melrose CARES Middle School Mentor Program, and a member of The League of Women Voters as well as the Melrose City Democratic City Committee, Maureen believes strongly that committed, active residents create a safe and vibrant community. Her goal as a Commissioner is to help with those activities that ensure understanding of differences and inclusion of all citizens.

Sally Stubbs, Co-Chair has been a resident of Melrose since 1986.  She is a Vice President of Risk Management and Compliance at State Street Bank & Trust.  In addition to her participation in the Human Rights Commission, Sally is a long-time member of the Melrose League of Women Voters and the Melrose Recycling Committee.  She has served in a number of PTO capacities over the years. Sally strongly believes in the mission and programs of the HRC and is honored to serve the community of Melrose as a member.

Karen Andrews has been a Melrose resident for 16 years. She is the Community Outreach Specialist and a diversity trainer at Hallmark Health System, Inc. Karen serves on the North Suburban Child and Family Resource Network Coalition, the Healthy Families Coalition, the Melrose Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, and the Homelessness Task Force.  Karen is honored to be one of the newest members of the Commission.

Alicia McNeil Clark is an attorney, concentrating in criminal defense and civil litigation, with extensive experience in real estate, employment, family, and civil rights law. She is also a trained mediator, and has served as a board member for the Massachusetts Bar Association, Young Lawyer’s Division, is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation, and has participated as a panelist for various legal programs. Prior to studying law, Ms. McNeil Clark served as a senior partner of a recruitment firm that placed people of color in managerial positions of major Boston firms. She has volunteered for the Big Sister’s Association, and in various legal clinics throughout the Boston area. She is an adjunct professor at Massasoit Community College and Eastern Nazarene College, and is delighted to serve as a Commissioner of the Melrose Human Rights Commission.

Spencer Deshields is currently the Executive Director for the Mattapan Community Development Corporation in Boston MA. He is responsible for the economic and social enhancement of the Mattapan community. During his career he has volunteered support to non-profit organizations utilizing the expertise from his experiences with Texas instruments, Digital Equipment and Compaq-HP. His experience has been associated with major non-profit community organizations, college preparatory institutions and major universities. He has successfully developed capital campaigns, fundraising strategies business and economic development initiatives. Education: Boston College & Babson BS-MBA.

Nyal Fuentes, Treasurer, is an Educational Specialist at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in the Office of Secondary School Support.  Nyal has experience in a variety of programs for youth including director of the AHORA program of Concilio Hispano in Cambridge and as a youth worker for Cambridge Community Services. He was a student teacher in Boston Public Schools, worked at Jeremiah Burke High School, and is certified to teach on a high school level. He also has experience as a trainer, including diversity training for Springfield police and other trainings in diversity, cultural competence, and sexual harassment interventions at the University of Massachusetts.

Beth Horne, MHRC Clergy Liaison is currently the pastor of the Melrose Highlands Congregational Church. Beth helped to form the Newburyport City Commission for Diversity and Tolerance and was instrumental in that city's designation as a No Place for Hate community. She helped to create a community communications plan which brought together the schools, police and city hall to address incidents of hate. She believes that to be a community that welcomes all takes the active engagement of each citizen. She is delighted to be a part of the MHRC's efforts to insure that rights are upheld for all citizens and visitors to Melrose and that all feel a sense of welcome. 

Shawn MacMaster is Deputy Chief of the Victim Witness Services Bureau for the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office. He has worked in direct victim services since 1998 in both the non-profit and public sector. He has been with the District Attorney’s Office since 2001. In addition to his current management responsibilities, Shawn is assigned as the lead advocate in the Office’s Domestic Violence Unit and oversees community outreach, programmatic initiatives and public relations for the Bureau. Shawn believes strongly in giving back to the community. He is the Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Melrose Alliance Against Violence, a volunteer ESL tutor and an active parishioner of St. Mary’s Parish. He and his wife Shannon are proud to call Melrose their home. 

Gayle Peterson is a life-long resident of Melrose. She has co-chaired the Ethics Committee at Massachusetts General Hospital for the last six years. She is an oncology nurse who has run a nationally recognized, unit-based ethics program focusing on nurses’ moral distresses. Some other programs on which Gayle Peterson has worked include efforts to insure patients’ rights: to pain medicine, to die with dignity, and to know that hospital personnel will follow the patient's wishes to the letter. She is the recent past president of the state chapter of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses, and in that capacity served on the legislative committee. She was a board member of the Massachusetts Pain Initiative. She has been a member of the Massachusetts Association of Registered Nurses Health Policy Committee, representing Massachusetts in Washington, D.C. in the ANA's House of Delegates. The MARN Health Policy Committee works to insure justice for the vulnerable, and it is this same concern for the rights of all people, especially those who are vulnerable on account of illness, disability, any form of minority status, age, or youth that guides Gayle Peterson’s membership on the Melrose Human Rights Commission. 

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Established in 1992 by Mayor Richard Lyons and the Board of Aldermen, the Commission addresses issues of human and civil rights, with the goals of reinforcing a positive atmosphere in the community, of preventing problems before they arise, and of resolving them if they do. Work is accomplished through three committees: Education and Community Outreach, Fair Housing, and Mediation and Conflict Resolution. Meetings are held bi-monthly, with a public forum period during the first 1/2 hour.

On October 9,1989, a Melrose family woke to find racial slurs painted on a wall in the front of their home. Reacting with a mixture of horror and shame, the mother ran out with a pail of water and cleaner and began scrubbing the graffiti off. The incident might have gone unnoticed except for the actions of Charlie Harak, a member of the Melrose Fair Housing Advisory Committee, who was driving to work after dropping his son off at day care. Charlie pulled over, got out of his car, and offered help and support. He knew that it was important to notify the police so that photos could be taken before the graffiti was scrubbed off. The defacing of property with racial slurs is a civil rights violation and punishable under the law. In order to prosecute, the police must have evidence, which a photo would provide.

Community leaders were outraged and resolved to do something about the negative image that the graffiti represented. A letter to the editor of the Melrose Free Press, signed by members of the Melrose Clergy Association and printed in the October 19 issue, asked "every member of this community to speak out against any racist incidents, no matter how minor they may at first seem, so that the seed of racism will not be allowed to grow." People responded to this call to action by forming the Melrose Human Rights Coalition.

Formed under the guidance of Sherrie Saint-Amant, Chair, Melrose Fair Housing Advisory Committee, Erskine White, Minister, First Congregational Church, and Michael Marcus, President, Temple Beth Shalom, the Coalition first met in December, 1989. Representatives from many houses of worship, the Melrose Public Schools, the League of Women Voters, the Chamber of Commerce, the Melrose Arts Council, the Melrose Police Department, and many social service organizations met regularly at the First Congregational Church. Founding members included: Linda Benezra, David Driscoll, Joan Driscoll, Maureen Elia, Jean Gorman, Christine Goulding, Charlie Harak, Maureen Hickey, Nancy Kukura, Paul Lassiter, Jane Lavender, Lisa Metz, Dan O'Neill, Phil Pendleton, Fred Rosseland, Edith Smolens, Amy Spollett, Marilyn Weddleton, Joan Wilcox, and Ed Wright. Middlesex District Attorney Scott Harshbarger designated Steve Limon, an assistant district attorney, to be liaison to the Coalition.

The Melrose Human Rights Coalition, over a period of 2 years, studied the responses of other municipalities to civil rights violations. During this period, the Melrose Police Department, under the guidance of newly designated Civil Rights Officer, Sgt. Dan O'Neill, adopted a protocol for responding to civil rights violations. To complement this, a "call list" was established to insure that appropriate community members would be notified should another incident occur. Dr. David Driscoll, Superintendent of Schools, designated Human Rights Coordinators at each level of the school system. The first coordinators were Freeman Frank, High School, Joan Driscoll, Middle School, and Edith Smolens, elementary schools. The Coalition formed an Education Committee to assist the new Coordinators in gathering and disseminating information on multicultural and anti-racism programs and materials. During this period, Maureen Elia and Christine Goulding studied local human rights organizations in several Massachusetts communities. Early in 1991, they recommended that work start on the creation of a local governmental commission. Coalition members agreed that a commission would be the most effective way to insure a systemic response to civil rights incidents, as well as providing a local resource for educational initiatives.

Alderman John Dunne worked with Maureen Elia, Christine Goulding, and Sherrie Saint-Amant to draft the language of a proposed ordinance. On September 16, 1991, the Board of Aldermen, under the leadership of President Donald Conn, voted to amend Revised Ordinances, Chapter 2, by adding a new Article XIX "Human Rights Commission". Mayor James Milano signed the order, deferring to the new soon-to-be-elected mayor for the appointment of the first Commissioners.

Mayor Richard Lyons appointed the following Commissioners in April, 1992: Peg Botte, Judy Clark, Maurice Donovan, Joe Flatley, Ed McNeely, Thomas Rice, Sherrie Saint-Amant, Edith Smolens, and Robert Wallace. A highlight of the first year was an evening of focus group discussions with 52 Melrose residents representative of a range of ages, religions, races, ethnicity, family status, and level of participation in community activities. Participants were asked:

1. What do you like about Melrose, that you don't want to see change?
2. How does intolerance or prejudice manifest itself in Melrose?
3. What should be done to build tolerance?
4. What can you individually do to build tolerance?

Results of the discussions were published and are available through the Commission.

Early in 1993, Lisa Bartolet, a community member of the Education and Community Outreach Committee, created an information flyer for the Commission. In addition, David Simko, of the same committee, produced a bumper sticker using the Commission slogan "Melrose: One Community Open to All". A banner with this slogan was also purchased. It is posted in the Mayor's Conference Room in City Hall and is available for use at community functions. The spring and summer of 1993 was a troublesome time, however, with 8 hate incidents, including distribution of hate literature. In response, Mayor Lyons called together a group of community leaders to discuss a response beyond the initial institutional protocol. A task force, chaired by Andrea Taffe and Lisa Bartolet, presented the Mayor with a report on November 1, calling for a "1994 Free Our Minds" Campaign. Activities included distribution of "Free Our Minds" buttons, a "Culture Walk" at Melrose High School, a community workshop sponsored by the First Baptist Church, a public forum featuring Philip and Rosanne Perlmutter, a series of 60 second public service announcements for local cable access TV, a human rights declaration signed by over 1000 Melrose residents and published in the Melrose Free Press, and a human rights candlelight walk to open the Home for the Holidays weekend in December.

Reported hate incidents declined in 1995, 1996, and 1997, as the Commission continued its community outreach and mediation work. Yearly events now include the Home for the Holidays candlelight walk and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Potluck Dinner. Through the work of the Fair Housing Committee, the Commission took a position in support of affordable housing in Melrose. The Education Committee has developed a partnership with the Melrose METCO Parents' Organization to promote better understanding between Boston and Melrose families. The Commission has also contracted with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) to do intake and investigative work on complaints filed by Melrose residents or against businesses operating in Melrose.

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