

Andrea Campbell is sworn in as legal professional normal by her aunt, Lois Savage, and her husband, Matthew L. Scheier, on the Boston Conference and Exhibition Middle. Picture: Angela Rowlings
Accompanied by her husband and sworn in by her aunt, Andrea Campbell took the oath of workplace as Massachusetts legal professional normal Wednesday on the Boston Conference and Exhibition Middle in a ceremony attended by lots of.
Campbell, the primary Black girl elected to statewide workplace, in her remarks famous the historic nature of her election.
“In the present day I stand on the shoulders of a fantastic and resilient Black individuals who stood up for civil rights, for freedom, inclusion, love — together with interracial love — who fought to combine public faculties or larger training establishments or regulation faculties, who testified and had been crushed to make sure our political methods represented all of us,” she stated.
Campbell spoke about her childhood in Boston, rising up bouncing between foster care and the properties of relations, dropping her mom in an auto accident, her father to incarceration.
“I like to consider it as an unimaginable story made doable by the facility and beauty of God — {that a} lady from a poor household who grew up in public housing in Roxbury and in Boston might change into the forty fifth legal professional normal of Massachusetts and the primary girl of colour to be elected to Massachusetts statewide workplace,” she stated.
Campbell delivered a wide-ranging speech, pertaining to the social inequities dealing with the aged, individuals of colour and LGBTQ individuals, and pledging to make use of her workplace to guard individuals.
“The excellent news is there are lots of legal guidelines that should make society extra honest and maintain us from discrimination and hate on the books,” she stated. “However they have to be championed and enforced vigorously to make sure our state’s individuals really feel that equity and are welcomed in all places they go on this nation, and we within the AG’s workplace can just do that. We are able to make sure that the federal government is attentive to your wants, and do it with integrity, empathy and urgency.”
Campbell’s employees advised the information web site Politico that she intends to create an elder justice unit that will deal with rising equal entry to well being care and defend seniors from fraud and misleading enterprise practices. Her workplace can also be planning to create an workplace of gun security enforcement and a reproductive justice unit, in line with Politico.
Priorities the brand new legal professional normal touched on in her speech additionally included combating wage theft; working to make sure all youngsters have entry to behavioral well being providers and a high-quality training; holding employers accountable for wage theft; combating public corruption; bringing extra transparency to the state’s prisons; defending Massachusetts gun legal guidelines; and addressing the opioid disaster, together with holding accountable the businesses which have profited from it.
“That may be a lot,” she stated. “I do know, and I’m occurring and on as a result of there’s a lot to do, however I’m excited to get to work collectively. We are able to and can do extra. We should, if Massachusetts is to be the chief it has at all times been. We should do extra with a way of boldness and urgency and take dangers.”
Campbell was sworn in by her aunt, Lois Savage, along with her husband, Matthew L. Scheier, holding the Bible on which she took her oath of workplace. In attendance had been elected officers together with U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Lori Trahan, Gov. Maura Healey, Mayor Michelle Wu, Suffolk County District Legal professional Kevin Hayden, and state Reps. Russell Holmes of Mattapan, Sam Montaño of Jamaica Plain and Carlos Gonzalez of Springfield.