1965–1966 Massachusetts legislature

164th
Massachusetts General Court
164th; Massachusetts General Court
Overview
Legislative body	General Court
Term	January 6, 1965 – September 7, 1966
Senate
Members	40
President	Maurice A. Donahue
Majority Leader	Kevin B. Harrington
Minority Leader	Philip A. Graham
Party control	Democrat
House
Members	240
Speaker	John Davoren
Majority Leader	Robert H. Quinn
Majority Whip	Theophile Jean DesRoches
Minority Leader	Sidney Curtiss
Minority Whip	Thomas M. Newth
Party control	Democrat

The 164th Massachusetts General Court, consisting of the Massachusetts Senate and the Massachusetts House of Representatives, met in 1965 and 1966 during the governorship of John Volpe. Maurice A. Donahue served as president of the Senate and John Davoren served as speaker of the House.^[4] On April 22, 1965, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an address to a joint session of the General Court after meeting with Massachusetts Governor John Volpe.^[5] In the same month, Volpe filed a request for legislation from the state legislature that defined schools with nonwhite enrollments greater than 50 percent to be imbalanced and granted the State Board of Education the power to withhold state funds from any school district in the state that was found to have racial imbalance, which Volpe would sign into law the following August.^[6]^[7]^[8]

Quick facts 164th Massachusetts General Court, Overview ...

Maurice Donahue, Senate president.

John Davoren, House speaker.

Leaders of the Massachusetts General Court, 1965-1966.

name ^[4]	date of birth ^[9]	district ^[9]
Oliver F. Ames	December 13, 1920	3rd Suffolk
Charles A. Bisbee Jr.	June 8, 1918
James F. Burke	September 7, 1914
Beryl Cohen	September 18, 1934
John J. Conte	May 3, 1930
Leslie Bradley Cutler	March 24, 1890
Stephen Davenport	June 27, 1924
James DeNormandie	November 10, 1907
Maurice A. Donahue	September 12, 1918
Mary L. Fonseca	March 30, 1915
Philip A. Graham	May 21, 1910
George D. Hammond	October 29, 1906
Kevin B. Harrington	January 9, 1929
John Edward Harrington Jr.	July 30, 1930
Charles V. Hogan	April 12, 1897
Allan Francis Jones	June 29, 1921
James A. Kelly Jr.	May 11, 1926
George V. Kenneally Jr.	December 29, 1929
Fred I. Lamson	December 11, 1910
James J. Long	November 15, 1913
Francis X. McCann	September 2, 1912
James McIntyre (politician)	May 25, 1930
Denis L. Mckenna	August 14, 1922
Joe Moakley	April 27, 1927
Andrea F. Nuciforo Sr.	July 14, 1927
John Francis Parker	May 29, 1907
Philibert L. Pellegrini	September 4, 1918
Vite Pigaga
John M. Quinlan	July 11, 1935
Philip Andrew Quinn	February 21, 1910
William I. Randall	September 13, 1915
James Paul Rurak	November 9, 1911
Harry Della Russo	May 26, 1907
Mario Umana	May 5, 1914
William X. Wall	July 1, 1904
Joseph D. Ward	March 26, 1914
William D. Weeks	May 9, 1926
Stanley John Zarod	April 11, 1920

Senators