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Joe Moakley

American politician (1927-2001) from Massachusetts

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ1691534 ↗
Source-derived summary

John Joseph Moakley (April 27, 1927 – May 28, 2001) was an American politician who served as the United States representative for Massachusetts's 9th congressional district from 1973 until his death in 2001. Moakley won the seat from incumbent Louise Day Hicks in a 1972 rematch; the seat had been held two years earlier by the retiring Speaker of the House John William McCormack. Moakley was the last Democratic chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Rules before Republicans took control of the chamber in 1995. He is the namesake of both Joe Moakley Park and the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston.

Early life and education

Moakley was born in South Boston, Massachusetts, April 27, 1927, and grew up in the Old Harbor public housing project. Lying about his age, he enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II and was involved in the Pacific War from 1943 to 1946. After returning home, Moakley attended the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida from 1950 to 1951, and he received his LL.B. at Suffolk University Law School in Boston in 1956.

Career

In 1958, he partnered with his Suffolk classmate Daniel W. Healy, and together they opened a law practice at 149A Dorchester Street in South Boston. They remained legal partners into the late 1970s.

Moakley was a member of the Portuguese American Civic Club located in Taunton, Massachusetts.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Joe Moakley” as american politician (1927-2001) from Massachusetts. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Moakley, American and politician.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1927, 2001, 1973, 1972—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1927-04-27. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Moakley, American and politician providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Joe Moakley”, the useful work is to connect “american politician (1927-2001) from Massachusetts” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1691534. VIAF identifies the subject as 68287462. The Library of Congress control number is n2002039494. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1927, 2001, 1973 and 1972.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Joe Moakley”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Joe Moakley primary sources, Joe Moakley archive and Moakley research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Joe Moakley” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.