Legislature votes to repeal 1675 Hub ban on Indians

The Legislature yesterday voted to repeal a 330-year-old law banning Native Americans from entering Boston, removing a potential obstacle cited by a group of minority journalists reluctant to consider holding a convention here.

The measure will be sent to Governor Mitt Romney; an aide said he will sign it.

The Muhheconnew National Confederacy, a group of Northeastern tribes, has advocated for the law's repeal since 1996, said Gary McCann, the group's policy adviser.

Helped by such Boston city councilors as Felix D. Arroyo of Hyde Park and Chuck Turner of Roxbury, the group stepped up repeal efforts last year before the Democratic National Convention in Boston. But the possibility that Unity: Journalists of Color Inc. might take its convention business elsewhere helped prod the Legislature into action, McCann said.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino also recently ramped up repeal efforts.

According to the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which has made booking minority meetings a priority, Unity conventioneers could spend an estimated $4.5 million in and around the city if they held their 2008 convention here. About 9,000 people would be expected to attend.

James Rooney, the authority's executive director, projects that at least 400,000 people will attend an event this year at either Boston's new convention center or the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center.

''When we talk to planners for minority conventions, we deal with perceptions that exist about Boston's past," said Rooney. ''And when news about this law pops up, it could reinforce old beliefs. It's important we take it off the books."

Few Boston visitors had been aware of the law, but publicity about it could keep future visitors away at a time when the city is marketing itself as ''welcoming and diverse," added Larry Meehan, director of tourism for the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Getting Unity to select Boston for a convention would be a coup, he said, because as journalists, these visitors can spread the word that old perceptions about Boston are outdated.

''These are the people we want to be saying, 'There's a new Boston,' " Meehan said.

Unity officials are scheduled to decide next month which of three cities will be the site of its 2008 convention, said Anna M. Lopez, Unity's executive director. The other two finalists are Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Referring to the law's proposed repeal, Lopez said of Boston, ''It's a stronger contender than it was before."

Asked why repeal has taken so long, McCann said: ''There's skepticism. People can't believe this really happened."

No one can remember the last time the law was enforced, and some elected officials said it was made moot by the Massachusetts Constitution adopted in 1780.

''It's important to understand that this law had no validity under the state constitution," said Representative Byron Rushing, who worked on repeal efforts with fellow Boston Democrats Senator Dianne Wilkerson and Representative Anthony W. Petruccelli.

Enacted during King Philip's War of the 1670s, which pitted colonists against Native Americans under a leader known as King Philip, the law was a wartime measure used to round up and imprison Indians who had converted to Christianity and who were living in Boston; when war broke out, they were deemed a threat to colonists, said Jill Lepore, a Harvard University history professor and author of ''The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity."

What brought the law recent attention was the possibility that Unity might exclude Boston from its list of finalists for a future convention. Unity represents African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic, and Native American journalists.

Patty Talahongva, a Unity board member and a member of the Native American Journalists Association, said she could not consider recommending Boston for a Unity convention unless the law is repealed.

''I can't even consider Boston if there's a law on the books that bans my membership from being there," she said. ''Yes, it's archaic. Yes, it's ridiculous. But why does this law still exist?"

Joanne Dunn, executive director of the North American Indian Center of Boston, said of the Legislature's action: ''It's a good day. It's very symbolic. It can bring some closure to a dark part of history that is unfortunately part of Boston."

Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com; JanetteNeuwahl at jneuwahl@globe.com.