Kevin J. Curtin

2020 has been a year of tragedy, and of lost champions.

We were stunned and deeply saddened to learn late last night of the sudden passing of Kevin J. Curtin, a member of Massachusetts Appleseed’s Board of Directors.

Kevin was a devoted and passionate advocate of access to justice and equitable opportunity, who spoke persistently about the need to confront the core inequities we face as a society. A teacher, mentor, and pillar of the Massachusetts legal community, he brought his years of expertise and compassionate commitment to the rule of law to our work. Our Board and staff remember him as a dedicated partner with an inquisitive and easygoing nature, who consistently pushed for bold action against injustice, discovered fellow graduates of Boston College Law School with unbridled joy, and was endlessly generous with his time and enthusiasm. His untimely and tragic death is a devastating loss for us all.

Through his personal and professional life, Kevin showed that the pursuit of social justice and the legal profession are not just intertwined, but inseparable. He had a steadfast belief that the law can be a tool in the service of good, and that lawyers have the power to make a difference. In a year already filled with so much struggle and pain, and amidst our own personal grief, these beliefs fuel our work in the days ahead.

We keep returning to something Kevin said in a recent meeting, about an upcoming initiative we hope to pursue in 2021. He noted that it will probably garner plenty of opposition. Then he smiled, raised his fist, and said we should stand tall and fight for it until the end.

Kevin brought this irresistible energy and will to all his work with Massachusetts Appleseed, and it is what we carry with us today as we mourn and remember him.

Upon joining the Board, Kevin said, “Together, I hope we will continue to help bend what the Rev. Martin Luther King called the long ‘arc of the moral universe,’ so that the idea of justice may become a little more real in the world.” As 2021 approaches, we hold his words close to our hearts and consider this a renewed call to action, for all of us at Massachusetts Appleseed.

In these past few months, we have lost far too many champions of the legal community. There is no way to describe the time we had with Kevin as he served on our Board as anything but a privilege and a gift. The days ahead will be emptier without him, and our thoughts and sincerest condolences are with his family, friends, and colleagues.

When he first joined the Board, Kevin was picking up the torch and building on the powerful and profound legacy of his father, Jack Curtin. Now it is our turn, and we hope we honor him and his own legacy by standing tall, taking bold action in service of our mission, and never giving up the fight for a fairer, more equitable future for all.

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Our hearts are heavy this week.

Just a few days following the tragic passing of Massachusetts’ own Chief Justice Gants, we have lost another beacon of light in the judiciary. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent her decades-spanning career fighting to make the American promise of “equal protection under the law” a reality, and she will be profoundly missed.  

A cultural icon, perhaps her most enduring legacy is as a champion of women’s rights. This week, a credit card in the wallets of women is not just a piece of plastic; in the days since Friday, it’s a memorial to Justice Ginsburg’s tireless work to end sex discrimination and ensure women are able to achieve financial autonomy and pursue all the opportunities life has to offer, free from legal barriers. She proved to us, time and time again, that no injustice is too great to overcome and to be committed to justice means to be in it for the long haul. A trailblazer of the legal community, Justice Ginsburg reminds us that rights are rarely given. They are fought for.

The challenges of 2020 exposed how far we still have to go – for racial equity, for immigrant rights, for the hundreds of thousands of people trapped in cycles of poverty by systemic failures of our society. Through her persistent dedication to the rule of law, Justice Ginsburg laid the groundwork for much of the powerful advocacy work grounded in social justice we see today. Relentless in the pursuit of justice and searing in her dissents, she illustrated that we not only have an obligation to fight the impossible fights – we can win them. And in so doing, we can build a better world based in justice, fairness, and equity.

All we can do is say thank you, and vow to keep the work going. May her memory be a blessing. May we live up to the legacy she leaves behind and bring about the world she knew is possible.

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Here we are again, joining others throughout the world in grief, outrage, and, perhaps most perniciously, recognition over the tragic extrajudicial killing of yet another Black person, George Floyd. This, as we continue to mourn for the unjust losses of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black people who have died needlessly at the hands of law enforcement in this country. We stand in solidarity with those engaged in protest. And as these protests increase in their intensity, it is crucial to refocus our attention to the violence that is wielded against Black communities every day.

The callous violence exhibited by those officers in the videoed moments of George Floyd’s murder is haunting and shocking. Yet, these officers’ actions fit comfortably within this country’s long-existing history of racial injustice. Their actions are rooted in the same myth of Black inferiority that justified slavery and thrived in the wake of Reconstruction, Jim Crow, lynching, redlining and segregation, the school-to-prison pipeline, the war on drugs, and countless other anti-Black policies – the presumption that Black people are untrustworthy and dangerous, that Black people as a whole are not equal, less capable, less deserving, less good, less human. It is no wonder that these deaths continue to occur.

This long-standing racial fiction has resulted in institutionalized racism and racial injustice in policies that impact every facet of life – social welfare, education, housing, employment, transportation, and city planning. If Black children are undeserving, then why invest in their education instead of handcuffing them for meaningless infractions? If Black families are untrustworthy, then why ensure that they do not experience homelessness and food insecurity at such disproportionate rates? If Black people are unequal, then why guarantee that the outcome of legal cases that threaten eviction, heavy fines, or imprisonment are based on merit, and not resources? These myths make it easier to look the other way. But, make no mistake, discriminatory policies that exclude Black students and families from educational opportunities, justice in the courts, and critical resources are violent. The chronic underfunding and devaluing of communities of color is violent. The disparate impact COVID-19 has had on Black communities is violent. Looking the other way does not make the destruction go away.

Massachusetts Appleseed’s work to change policies that marginalize, impoverish, and punish communities of color exists within the context of racism’s long, violent legacy; our commitment to promoting access to justice and opportunity is also a commitment to identifying and rooting out the destructive myths that perpetuate these policies. In this charged moment, we urge our lawmakers, policymakers, and leaders to turn away from a return to business as usual. It is clear that talking is not enough. Acknowledging is not enough. Instead, take this time to reimagine our future – one in which our systems support and protect the full humanity of every person, and in which our policies and institutions fulfill America’s most foundational ideals of fairness, justice, and equity.

In solidarity,

Deborah Silva
Executive Director
Massachusetts Appleseed

Melanie L. Todman
Chair of the Board of Directors
Massachusetts Appleseed

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