Deval Patrick's Inauguration

Deval Patrick's inauguration as Massachusetts' first black governor marked a historic moment in not only Massachusetts, but national politics yesterday. What is especially important is the way in which Patrick's success seems to have mobilized an oftentimes invisible black political class in the state and indeed across New England. Perhaps the most powerful symbolic moment in Patrick's swearing-in was the fact that he placed his hand on a Bible that once belonged to slaves.