Holyoke is a city in Hampden County,Massachusetts,United States,that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 census,the city had a population of 38,247. Located 8 miles (13 km) north of Springfield,Holyoke is part of the Springfield Metropolitan Area,one of the two distinct metropolitan areas in Massachusetts.
The Seven Sisters are a group of seven private liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States that are historically women's colleges. Barnard College,Bryn Mawr College,Mount Holyoke College,Smith College,and Wellesley College are still women's colleges. Vassar College became coeducational in 1969 and Radcliffe College was absorbed in 1999 by Harvard College and now offers programs in advanced study.
Suffolk University is a private research university in Boston,Massachusetts,United States. With 7,560 students on all campuses,it is the tenth-largest university in metropolitan Boston. It was founded as a law school in 1906 and named after its location in Suffolk County,Massachusetts. The university is also host to its namesake public opinion poll,the Suffolk University Political Research Center.
Frances Perkins was an American workers-rights advocate who served as the fourth United States Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945,the longest serving in that position. A member of the Democratic Party,Perkins was the first woman ever to serve in a presidential cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her longtime friend,President Franklin D. Roosevelt,she helped make labor issues important in the emerging New Deal coalition. She was one of two Roosevelt cabinet members to remain in office for his entire presidency.
John Joseph Moakley was an American politician who served as the United States representative for Massachusetts's 9th congressional district from 1973 until his death in 2001. Moakley won the seat from incumbent Louise Day Hicks in a 1972 rematch;the seat had been held two years earlier by the retiring Speaker of the House John William McCormack. Moakley was the last Democratic chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Rules before Republicans took control of the chamber in 1995. He is the namesake of Joe Moakley Park in Boston,Massachusetts which was renamed in his honor in 2001 after his death.
Suffolk University Law School is the private,non-sectarian law school of Suffolk University located in downtown Boston,across the street from the Boston Common and the Freedom Trail,two blocks from the Massachusetts State House,and a short walk to the financial district. Suffolk Law was founded in 1906 by Gleason Archer Sr. to provide a legal education for those who traditionally lacked the opportunity to study law because of socio-economic or racial discrimination.
Western New England University is a private university in Springfield,Massachusetts. Academic programs are provided through its College of Arts and Sciences,College of Business,College of Engineering,School of Law,and College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.
Marian Walsh is an American author,consultant,lawyer and former politician. She is a former State Senator in the Massachusetts Senate where she served nine terms,and a former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives where she served two terms. She was the first woman to serve in the Massachusetts State House and the State Senate from her district. Walsh began her own consulting and coaching firm upon leaving public office. She also authored Run,a book about running for political office as well as started a campaign school at the Kennedy Library.
Gloria Cordes Larson is a prominent lawyer,public policy expert,and business leader. Larson was named president of Bentley University in 2007 and served in that role until June 2018. She was the seventh president of Bentley and the first woman to hold the post. Prior to joining Bentley,Larson served as secretary of consumer affairs and business regulation from 1991 to 1993,under former Massachusetts Governor William Weld and led a business advisory council for former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.
Eileen Donoghue is an American politician who is the former city manager of Lowell,Massachusetts (2018–2022),a former member of the Massachusetts Senate,where she has represented the First Middlesex District from 2011 to 2018,as well as a former city councilor (1996–2008) and mayor (1998–2002) of Lowell. She ran in the Massachusetts' 5th Congressional District special election in 2007 to fill the United States House of Representatives seat vacated by Marty Meehan,narrowly losing the Democratic primary to Niki Tsongas. In the Massachusetts Senate,Donoghue has been a staunch advocate for small businesses,economic development in gateway cities,and public higher education. She has spearheaded efforts to reduce student loan debt and create pathways to stable jobs.
Linda Lee Berglin is a Minnesota politician and a former member of the Minnesota Senate who represented District 61,which includes portions of the city of Minneapolis in Hennepin County,which is in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. A Democrat,she was first elected to the Senate in 1980,and was re-elected in each election until she resigned on August 15,2011,to take a position with Hennepin County. Prior to the 1982 and 1992 redistricting,the area was known as District 59 and District 60,respectively.
Thomas M. "Tommy" Petrolati is an American politician who represented the 7th Hampden district in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and was a member of the Ludlow,Massachusetts Board of Selectmen from 1984 to 1986.
The 2013 United States Senate special election in Massachusetts was held on June 25,2013,in order to fill the Massachusetts Class 2 United States Senate seat for the remainder of the term ending January 3,2015.
Nick Collins is an American politician who currently serves as a member of the Massachusetts Senate,representing First Suffolk District. Collins serves as the Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight and the Senate Vice Chair of the Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Businesses. Additionally,he serves a member of the Senate Committee on Bills in the Third Reading,and a member on the Joint Committee's on Bonding,Capital Expenditures and State Assets;Mental Health,Substance Use and Recovery;and Public Service. He is a Boston resident and a Democrat. Elected into the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 2010,he served four terms in the House representing the 4th Suffolk District.
Eric Philip Lesser is an American lawyer and politician who served in the Massachusetts State Senate. Before representing his hometown of Longmeadow,Massachusetts,and neighboring communities in the Greater-Springfield area,he worked as a White House aide during the Obama administration. Lesser is one of the originators of the White House Passover Seder. In the 2022 Massachusetts race for Lieutenant Governor,Lesser lost the Democratic primary to Kim Driscoll.
Mary L. Fonseca (1915–2005) was a Massachusetts state senator who represented the Second Bristol District from 1953 to 1984. As Assistant Majority Leader,she was the first woman to hold a leadership post in the Massachusetts Senate.
As of the 2010 census,Holyoke,Massachusetts had the largest Puerto Rican population,per capita,of any city in the United States outside Puerto Rico proper,with 47.7% or 44,826 residents being of Puerto Rican heritage,comprising 92.4% of all Latinos in the community. From a combination of farming programs instituted by the US Department of Labor after World War II,and the housing and mills that characterized Holyoke prior to deindustrialization,Puerto Ricans began settling in the city in the mid-1950s,with many arriving during the wave of Puerto Rican migration to the Northeastern United States in the 1980s. A combination of white flight as former generations of mill workers left the city,and a sustained influx of migrants in subsequent generations transformed the demographic from a minority of about 13% of the population in 1980,to the largest single demographic by ancestry in a span of three decades.
From the beginning of the city's history as the western bank of Springfield,Irish families have resided in and contributed to the development of the civics and culture of Holyoke,Massachusetts. Among the first appellations given to the city were the handles "Ireland","Ireland Parish",or "Ireland Depot",after the village was designated the 3rd Parish of West Springfield in 1786. Initially occupied by a mixture of Yankee English and Irish Protestant families,many of whom belonged to the Baptist community of Elmwood,from 1840 through 1870 the area saw a large influx of Irish Catholic workers,immigrants to the United States,initially from the exodus of the Great Famine. During that period Irish immigrants and their descendants comprised the largest demographic in Holyoke and built much of the early city's infrastructure,including the dams,canals,and factories. Facing early hardships from Anti-Irish sentiment,Holyoke's Irish would largely build the early labor movement of the city's textile and paper mills,and remained active in the national Irish nationalist and Gaelic revival movements of the United States,with the Holyoke Philo-Celtic Society being one of 13 signatory organizations creating the Gaelic League of America,an early 20th century American counterpart of Conradh na Gaeilge.
Massachusetts Senate's 2nd Hampden and Hampshire district in the United States is one of 40 legislative districts of the Massachusetts Senate. It covers 29.3% of Hampden County and 13.8% of Hampshire County population in 2010. Democrat John Velis has represented the district since May 2020.
