GREEN-RAINBOW: History of A United Party

1970s International Green Party movement begins.

1983 Rainbow Coalition (RC) movement begins with the Boston mayoral race of Mel King, former five-term state legislator.

1984 Inspired by success of German Green Party, a group of U.S. activists come together to form the Green Committees of Correspondence network.

1986 First GP candidate appears on U.S. ballot.

1987 Serious Massachusetts Green organizing begins as an activist movement.

1980s Rainbow Coalition founds Multiversity; holds five annual Martin Luther King Jr. banquets and community awards ceremonies.

1989 First fully delegated U.S. Green Party Congress

1996 Massachusetts Green Party (MGP) emerges as an electoral force with Ralph Nader’s first presidential campaign; Rainbow members support campaign.

1997 RC obtains political designation.

1998 MGP commits itself to the clean elections campaign, gathering tens of thousands of signatures for the initiative, which eventually becomes law.

1999 Rainbow Coalition Party member Chuck Turner elected to Boston City Council.

2000 Rainbow Coalition Party endorses and joins in fundraising and campaigning for Green Party Nader-LaDuke presidential ticket. Ticket receives more than 6% of Massachusetts votes, thereby giving the MGP official ballot status. MGP membership doubles.

2001 Chuck Turner reelected to Boston City Council.

2002 Mass. Green Party fields three statewide candidates - Jill Stein for Governor, Anthony Lorenzen for Lt. Governor, James O’Keefe for Treasurer, and several regional candidates. O’Keefe receives 8% and Stein-Lorenzen 3% of votes to retain the MGP official ballot status. MGP convention endorses merger with Rainbow Coalition Party. Again, MGP membership doubles.

2003 Mass. Green Party changes its name to the Green-Rainbow Party and receives official recognition as a political party, as Rainbow Coalition Party and MGP members unite.

2004 GRP puts Green Party Cobb-LaMarche presidential ticket on the ballot.

2006 GRP fields a larger statewide slate than Republican Party - Grace Ross for Governor, Martina Robinson for Lt. Governor, Jill Stein for Secretary of the Commonwealth, Jamie O'Keefe for Treasurer. Stein and O'Keefe receive 18% and 16% of the vote, respectively, and the Party regains ballot status.

2008 GRP initiates 2 non-binding representative district ballot questions which receive landslide support. GRP helps form Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending (MAAPL). GRP puts Green Party McKinney-Clemente presidential ticket on the ballot.