Basil Paterson

Basil Alexander Paterson (April 27, 1926cite web
url=http://198.173.255.156/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=1398&category=PoliticalMakers
title= Basil A. Paterson Biography
date=2007-01-18
publisher=The HistoryMakers
location= United States
accessdate-2008-04-19] –), a labor lawyer, is a longtime political leader in New York and Harlem and father of the 55th Governor of New York, David Paterson. His mother was Jamaican,cite web
url=http://www.ancestry.com
title= Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1800-1945 [database on-line]
publisher= The Generations Network
location= United States
date=1919-09-09
accessdate=2008-07-19] his father Grenadian. [cite news
url=http://news.caribseek.com/Barbados/Daily_Nation/article_63341.shtml
title= Paterson claims Caribbean roots
first= Tony |last=Best
date=2008-03-16
work=The Daily Nation
location= Barbados
accessdate-2008-03-20] [cite web
url=http://www.cbc.bb/index.pl/article?id=193759
title= New NY Govenor sic is son of Caribbean nationals
publisher= Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation
location= Barbados
accessdate=2008-03-20] cite web
url=http://www.ancestry.com
title= World War I Draft Registration Card [database on-line]
publisher= The Generations Network
location= United States
date=1917-06-05
accessdate=2008-07-17] cite web
url=http://www.ancestry.com
title= New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]
publisher= The Generations Network
location= United States
date=1917-05-16
accessdate=2008-07-17] "I got out of high school when I was 16," Basil Paterson told "New York Times" columnist Bob Herbert, "and the first real job I had was with a wholesale house in the old Port Authority building, down on 18th Street. We'd pack and load these trucks that went up and down in huge elevators. Every year there would be a Christmas party for the employees at some local hotel. Those of us who worked in the shipping department were black. We got paid not to go to the party."cite news
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/opinion/15herbert.html
title=The Winds of Albany
first=Bob |last=Herbert
work=The New York Times |date=2008-03-15 |accessdate-2008-03-20]

Paterson was born in Harlem on April 27, 1926, the son of Leonard James and Evangeline Alicia (Rondon) Paterson. cite book
last = Phelps
first = Shirelle (editor)
title = Who's Who Among African Americans (11th Edition)
publisher = Gale Research
date = 1998
location = Detroit, Michigan, London
pages = 1005
isbn = 0-7876-2469-1] His father was born on the island of Carriacou in the Grenadines and arrived in the United States aboard the S.S. Vestris on May 16, 1917 in New York City. His mother was born in Kingston, Jamaica and arrived in the United States on September 9, 1919 aboard the S.S. Vestnorge in Philadelphia with a final distination of New York City. A stenographer by profession, the former Miss Rondon once served as a secretary for Marcus Garvey. In 1942, at the age of 16, Paterson graduated from De Witt Clinton High School in the Bronx. His studies continued at St. John's University where his college studies were interrupted by a two year stint in the army during World War Two. He graduated in 1948 with a B.S. in biology. This was followed by admission to St. John's Law School, where he received the degree of Juris Doctor in 1951.cite web
url=http://www.msek.com/profiles/profiles.php?profile_id=65
title= Basil A. Paterson
publisher=Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P.C.
location= United States
accessdate=2008-04-19] Paterson became involved in Democratic politics in Harlem in the 1950s and 1960s. Along with former New York Mayor David Dinkins, former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton, and Congressman Charles Rangel, Paterson is a leader of the "Harlem Clubhouse," which has dominated Harlem politics since the 1960s.

In 1965 Paterson was elected to the New York State Senate representing the Upper West Side of New York City and Harlem. He gave up his Senate seat in 1970 to run for lieutenant governor, as the running mate of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg. The Goldberg/Paterson ticket lost to the Republican ticket of incumbent Gov. Nelson Rockefeller and Lt. Gov. Malcolm Wilson.

In 1978, Paterson was appointed as a Deputy Mayor of New York City by then Mayor Ed Koch. He stepped down as deputy mayor in 1979 to become New York Secretary of State, and served until the end of the Hugh Carey administration in 1983. He was the first black New York Secretary of State.

Currently, Paterson is a Member of the law firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P.C., where he is co-chair of the firm's Labor practice.

Paterson is the father of New York Governor David Paterson, who was elected lieutenant governor on November 7, 2006 on a ticket with Gov. Eliot Spitzer. David Paterson became governor on March 17, 2008, after Spitzer resigned. When his son became lieutenant governor, Basil Paterson said that fact may actually "get in the way" of his livelihood as a negotiator and lawyer for the hospital workers and Teamsters unions. [cite news
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/nyregion/27paterson.html
title= Paterson & Son, Offices in Harlem and Albany
first=Sam |last=Roberts
work=The New York Times |date=2006-12-27 |accessdate-2008-03-20]

1970 New York State Democratic Ticket

*Governor: Arthur Goldberg
*Lieutenant Governor: Basil Paterson
*Comptroller: Arthur Levitt
*Attorney General: Adam Walinsky
*U.S. Senate: Richard Ottinger

References

External links

* [http://www.msek.com/profiles/profiles.php?profile_id=65 Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P.C. - Biography] official site