With no City Council meeting last week, today we’ll take another excursion into a part of Lowell political history that intersects with several contemporary issues. In May the City Council held a vigorous debate on whether to unwind the judicial consent decree from the 1980s that still governs the assignment…

In the years before the American Civil War, Frederick Douglass was a frequent visitor to Lowell. Although the city’s entire reason for existence was the production of cloth made from cotton harvested by enslaved Africans in the American south which provided a strong incentive for those in Lowell to remain…

4th of July in Lowell – (PIP #37) By Louise Peloquin A 4th of July throwback announcing an honor roll dedication, advertising an evening of celebration and covering heat elevation. Times have changed and yet, have they? Articles below from L’Etoile, June 30, 1944. Honor roll dedication on Tuesday   …

Sometimes when you watch a Lowell City Council meeting you get a sense that there are two meetings happening simultaneously. One is out in the open, but the other is couched in cryptic language and verbal slips that make clear that the Councilors are privy to more than they are…

The Letter and The Counterculture By Ed DeJesus The red rhododendrons in front of the government building were blooming. The sunny forecast for Tuesday, June fourth, 1968, was great. Ideal weather to take a half-day off from my monotonous mail clerk job at the IRS in Andover, MA. I showed…

The War Effort – (PIP #36) By Louise Peloquin In his June 9th substack, Richard Howe listed the seven servicemen from Lowell who were killed in Normandy. The extensive media coverage of the recent 80th anniversary of D-Day etched vivid images of the solemn ceremonies into our hearts. Here is…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s owm blog. The Claims of Life by Diana Chapman Walsh is a deep and delightful memoir by the former president of Wellesley College, whom I met and with whom I briefly worked in conjunction with the 125th anniversary of the college. A…

There was no Lowell City Council meeting this week, so I’ll use today’s newsletter to share some political history that remains relevant today. During its May 6, 2024, meeting, the Lowell Planning Board spent considerable time discussing a section of Lowell Forward, the draft master plan that asserted that housing…