Five African-American candidates from Boston are elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Doris Bunte (D-Roxbury) becomes the first African-American woman elected to the Massachusetts legislature. She joins other newly-elected candidates Royal Bolling Jr. (D-Dorchester), Mel King (D-South End), and William Owens (D-Mattapan), and incumbent Royal Bolling Sr. (D-Roxbury). They hold a joint inaugural at the Elma Lewis School for the Performing Arts in Roxbury on January 1, 1973, and go on to establish the Massachusetts Black Legislative Caucus in 1973.* Bunte and Bolling Jr. serve until 1985, King until 1981, and Owens until 1974.*