In 1979, Frank was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts. Later, when Frank was running for Congress, opponents erroneously portrayed him as having attempted to permit red-light districts in all Bay State communities. The bill, which had the support of Boston's Police Commissioner, never came up for a vote. As a means of dealing with crime in the area (including violence, police corruption and the infiltration by organized crime), he introduced a bill into the Massachusetts General Court that would have legalized the sex-for-hire business but kept it quarantined in a red light district, which would have been moved to Boston's Financial District. Neighborhoods in Frank's district bordered the Combat Zone. He made a name for himself in the mid-1970s as a political defender of the Combat Zone, Boston's notorious red light district. In 1972, Frank was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives where he served for eight years. In 1977, Frank graduated from Harvard Law School, where he was once a student of Henry Kissinger, while serving as a Massachusetts state representative. He then served for a year as Administrative Assistant to Congressman Michael J. He taught undergraduates at Harvard while studying for a PhD in Government, but left in 1968 before completing the degree, to become Boston mayor Kevin White's Chief Assistant, a position he held for three years. In 1964, he was a volunteer in Mississippi during Freedom Summer. įrank's undergraduate studies were interrupted by the death of his father, and Frank took a year off to help resolve the family's affairs prior to his graduation. When Wyman invited Frank to visit Aiken in the early 1960s, Frank made a point of drinking from the since-abolished "colored-only" water fountain then available to African Americans. One of his roommates was Hastings Wyman of Aiken, South Carolina, later a political consultant who in 1978 began publishing The Southern Political Report. Frank was educated at Bayonne High School, before matriculating at Harvard College, where he resided in Matthews Hall his first year and then in Kirkland House and Winthrop House. Frank's father ran a truck stop in Jersey City-a place Frank has described as "totally corrupt"-and when Frank was 6 or 7, his father served a year in prison for refusing to testify to a grand jury against Frank's uncle. His family was Jewish, and his grandparents had emigrated from Poland and Russia. 1 Early life, education, and early careerįrank was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, one of four children of Elsie ( née Golush) and Samuel Frank.Prior to his time in the House of Representatives, Frank served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1973 to 1981. Frank's autobiography, A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage, was published in 2015. Frank did not seek re-election in 2012, and was succeeded by fellow Democrat Joe Kennedy III. In July 2012, he married his long-time partner, James Ready, becoming the first member of Congress to marry someone of the same sex while in office. From 2003 until his retirement, Frank was the leading Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, and he served as committee chairman when his party held a House majority from 2007 to 2011. In 1987, he publicly came out as gay, becoming the first member of Congress to do so voluntarily. He was re-elected every term thereafter by wide margins. House of Representatives in 1980 with 52 percent of the vote. He worked as a political aide before winning election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1972. īorn and raised in Bayonne, New Jersey, Frank graduated from Bayonne High School, Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Frank, a resident of Newton, Massachusetts, was considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States during his time in Congress. A Democrat, Frank served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee from 2007 to 2011 and was a leading co-sponsor of the 2010 Dodd–Frank Act. House of Representatives from Massachusetts from 1981 to 2013. Barnett Frank (born March 31, 1940) is a former American politician.
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