Our Commonwealth
Diversity & Civil Rights in Massachusetts
Massachusetts has been both a leader and a battleground on civil rights. Understanding that complicated history, and the legal protections in place today, is part of civic education.
On This Page
Civil Rights History: The Massachusetts Record
Massachusetts has a long and genuinely complicated civil rights history. The Commonwealth was among the first to take steps toward abolition and integration, yet it was also the site of serious and documented racial injustice. Understanding both sides is essential.
Early Milestones
- 1780: The Massachusetts Constitution declared “all men are born free and equal,” language that the state’s Supreme Judicial Court interpreted in 1783 to effectively end slavery in the Commonwealth, decades before the Civil War.
- 1843: Massachusetts repealed its ban on interracial marriage, among the earliest states to do so.
- 1855: Massachusetts became the first state to ban school segregation by law, following years of advocacy by Benjamin Roberts, attorney Robert Morris, and abolitionist Charles Sumner. Their earlier lawsuit, Roberts v. City of Boston, was argued by Sumner on December 4, 1849, and decided against the Roberts family at the court’s March term in 1850, when Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw held that Boston could keep its schools separate. That loss built the political momentum that won in the legislature. Sumner’s arguments in that case later shaped the legal framework used in Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
The Complicated Middle
Massachusetts’ early legal progress did not mean the absence of discrimination. School segregation persisted in practice in Boston for over a century after the 1855 law. In 1974, federal judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. ruled in Morgan v. Hennigan that Boston had built a dual school system, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, and ordered court-supervised busing to desegregate Boston Public Schools, setting off years of conflict. Garrity also barred the School Committee from violating the Massachusetts Racial Imbalance Act of 1965, and the plan he enforced grew out of a state Board of Education plan written under that Act. The busing crisis revealed that segregation was a Northern problem, not only a Southern one, and its legacy continues to shape conversations about educational equity in Massachusetts today.
LGBTQ+ Rights
On November 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that barring same-sex couples from civil marriage violated the Massachusetts Constitution. The ruling was the first of its kind from a final appellate court anywhere in the United States. The first marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples on May 17, 2004. Massachusetts led the nation by more than a decade: the U.S. Supreme Court did not extend marriage equality nationwide until Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015.
The case was brought by seven couples, represented by GLAD (GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders), and named for lead plaintiffs Julie and Hillary Goodridge.
Learn more: GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD)
Disability Rights
Massachusetts enforces both federal disability protections and its own state laws. The Massachusetts Architectural Access Board (MAAB) sets accessibility standards for buildings statewide. The Massachusetts Office on Disability (MOD), established in 1981, provides information and advocacy for residents with disabilities. State law prohibits disability discrimination in employment, housing, education, and public accommodations under M.G.L. c. 151B.
Learn more: Massachusetts Office on Disability
By the Numbers
Massachusetts is home to approximately 7 million residents. About 18 percent of the population, roughly 1 in 6 residents, was born outside the United States, one of the highest rates in the country. The state saw the largest percentage-point increase in its foreign-born population of any state between 2010 and 2022.
The most common countries of origin for Massachusetts immigrants are Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and China. The three most widely spoken non-English household languages are Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese (including Mandarin and Cantonese). About 25 percent of Massachusetts households speak a language other than English as their primary home language.
Racial and ethnic composition (2024 American Community Survey estimates): approximately 65 percent White non-Hispanic, 14 percent Hispanic or Latino, 7 percent Black or African American, 7 percent Asian, and 5 percent multiracial or other.
Protected Classes Under Massachusetts Law
Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 151B is the state’s primary anti-discrimination law. It prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, education, and credit on the basis of membership in a protected class. It is enforced by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD).
Protected classes under Chapter 151B include:
- Race
- Color
- Religious creed
- National origin
- Sex
- Gender identity
- Sexual orientation
- Age (40 and older)
- Disability
- Pregnancy
- Veteran or military status
- Genetic information
The law applies to employers with six or more employees, and to any employer of domestic workers regardless of size. Massachusetts public accommodations law (M.G.L. c. 272) extends many of these protections to businesses and places open to the public, including gender identity protections that took effect in 2016.
How to Report Discrimination
If you believe you have been discriminated against in employment, housing, education, or a public accommodation in Massachusetts, you can file a complaint with the MCAD. Complaints must generally be filed within 300 days of the most recent discriminatory act.
The MCAD investigates complaints, can hold hearings, and can order remedies including compensation for lost wages and emotional distress.
Immigrant Communities and Language Access
Massachusetts has policies that provide certain services and protections regardless of immigration status. The state’s right-to-shelter law, one of the few such laws in the country, requires Massachusetts to provide emergency shelter to eligible families. State law also limits the circumstances under which state and local agencies cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
For residents navigating life in Massachusetts in languages other than English, the MIRA Coalition (Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition) is a statewide nonprofit providing resources, legal information, and policy advocacy.
State courts, hospitals, and many government offices are required to provide interpreter services. The Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services maintains a language access program covering dozens of languages.
Interfaith Massachusetts
Massachusetts was founded in part by colonists seeking religious freedom, though that freedom was often denied to those outside the dominant Puritan tradition. Today the Commonwealth is home to residents of every major world religion, as well as many smaller faiths and nonreligious communities.
Chapter 151B protects against religious discrimination in employment and housing. Employers are required to make reasonable accommodations for employees’ religious practices unless doing so would create undue hardship.
The Massachusetts Council of Churches is an ecumenical coalition of Christian denominations with a history of civic engagement and social justice advocacy.
Learn more: Massachusetts Council of Churches
Civil rights are protected by law, but they are sustained by civic participation.