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Montgomery Blair High School

Montgomery Blair High School (MBHS) is a public high school in the Four Corners neighborhood of Silver Spring, Maryland, United States. It is operated by Montgomery County Public Schools. Its enrollment of 3,176 makes it the largest school in Montgomery County and in the state.

The school is named for Montgomery Blair, a lawyer who represented Dred Scott in his Supreme Court case and later served as Postmaster General under President Abraham Lincoln. Opened in 1925 as Takoma Park–Silver Spring High School, the school changed its name in 1935 when it moved to 313 Wayne Avenue overlooking Sligo Creek in Silver Spring. In 1998, the school moved two miles (3 km) north to the Kay Tract, a long-vacant site just north of the Capital Beltway.

About 20% of the student body is part of one of two magnet programs: the Science, Math, and Computer Science Magnet, and the Communication Arts Program (CAP), which draw students from the Silver Spring area and across Montgomery County. The school is a member of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology (NCSSSMST).

Philadelphia–Chicago campus era (1925–1935)
The school opened in 1925 as Takoma–Silver Spring High School with 86 students. The 3.8 acre campus sat at the corner of Philadelphia Avenue and Chicago Avenue in suburban Takoma Park, Maryland.

By the end of the 1920s, the school had added a junior high school (8th and 9th grades) to its senior high school (10th through 12th grades). Growing along with the communities of Silver Spring and Takoma Park, it eventually encompassed kindergarten to 12th grade. By 1934, the school was over-capacity with 450 students, and so, in 1935, the 10th, 11th, and 12 grades moved to a new high school named Montgomery Blair Senior High School. For a time, students, teachers, and administrators commuted between the two campuses. The annual yearbook, ‘’Silverlogue’’, was established around this time.

Wayne Avenue campus era (1935–1998)
When Montgomery Blair High School's 23.5 acre Wayne Avenue campus opened in March 1935, it was the sixth high school in Montgomery County, and the first in the lower county. One of several Montgomery County schools designed during that period by Howard Wright Cutler, the facility then consisted only of the C building, overlooking Sligo Creek. In 1936, the Auxiliary Gymnasium was added, followed by the B building in 1940, and the D building in 1942. MBHS's first football team was founded in 1944, and the War Memorial Stadium opened in 1947. In 1950, the A building was constructed, containing the Blair Library/Media Center. With the addition of the Main Gymnasium/Fieldhouse in 1954, MBHS possessed one of the finest basketball and football facilities in the county. The E building was added in 1959 as an administrative section, followed by the 1969 opening of the 1200-seat auditorium, named for long-time teacher and librarian Elizabeth Stickley. The most recent addition was the automotive shop building in 1973.

During World War II, students from the University of Maryland taught several classes, and in some cases, able senior students taught sophomore classes. The Blair Library created the "Senior Corner" to honor those who died in war. Life magazine featured the school's Victory Corps close order drill team. Before to the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Blair was an all-white school. In 1955, the school began to integrate along with the rest of Montgomery County.

With Silver Spring's growth, Blair's enrollment jumped from 600 students in 1946, to 1900 by 1956, peaking at 2900 in 1965 before being reduced from 1700 to 1400 after rezoning in 1982. Enrollment was around 1,800 when the Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science Magnet program brought 80 new students in the fall of 1985. The Communication Arts Program (CAP) followed in 1987, founded by Alicia Coleman, brought 75 new students. Overcrowding became an issue for Montgomery Blair High School, as portable buildings covered what was once open land and enrollment exceeded the building's capacity of 2,000.

Blair is one of the few U.S. high schools with a .edu domain name, with its internet connection having gone live in the late 1980s.

Four Corners campus era (1998–present)
In 1994, construction began on a new campus on an empty tract of land 1.5 mi north of the Wayne Avenue campus, at the intersection of University Boulevard, Colesville Road, and the Capital Beltway.

In fall 1998, Blair opened on the 42 acre Four Corners campus, the largest high-school campus in the county and nearly twice as large as the old Wayne Avenue site. It was designed for 2,830 students.

Blair's Wayne Avenue campus was converted into an elementary and middle school; currently, Sligo Creek Elementary School and Silver Spring International Middle School. The Elizabeth Stickley Auditorium was not included in the conversion plans, and has remained closed and deteriorating since 1997. Several local politicians and leaders, including former Maryland state senator Ida Ruben, current U.S. representative Jamie Raskin and former U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski, have endorsed projects to restore the auditorium to its former condition.

During the early to mid-2000s, the school population spiked to 3,400 students, with the overflow handled by up to eight portable classrooms. Enrollment decreased slightly due to the opening of other schools and the creation of the Downcounty Consortium. Two portables were removed at the beginning of the 2006–2007 school year, and all were gone by April 2010, when enrollment was 2,788. Enrollment has rebounded to about 3,200 students, making Blair the largest public school in Maryland.

2008 brought digital Promethean boards to many classrooms.

In 2011, Renay Johnson was appointed as the first woman to lead the school. She decided to retire at the end of the 2023-24 school year having completed 33 years of teaching. The school has not yet named a new principal. Adrianna Burgos, the current assistant principal, will serve as acting principal from July 1, 2024, until August 14, 2024. Kevin Yates, the principal at Damascus High School, will take over as acting principal at Blair effective August 15, 2024.

Notable events
In April 1992, Montgomery Blair High School was the first high school in the United States to sponsor a display of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. More than 5,000 children, their families, teachers and friends came to see the Quilt.

The school has been a stop for politicians because of the school's diversity, strong academic programs, and proximity to the nation's capital. Some notable visits include:

 * February 5, 1998: President Bill Clinton and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair
 * March 7, 2003: United States Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and Secretary of Education Rod Paige
 * June 1, 2016: Secretary of State John Kerry discussed ocean conservation

On June 23, 2005, President George W. Bush held a town-hall-style event at the school on short notice to promote his plan to partially privatize Social Security. Students and the general public were barred from attending. About 400 community members, students, and union members protested Bush's proposals on the public sidewalk outside the school, rebuffing police attempts to persuade them to move to a park more than a block away.

During the 2010–2011 school year, NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spoke to a packed auditorium of students about his upcoming film and his life, then privately with the varsity and junior varsity basketball teams.

On February 26, 2018, U.S. Congressmen Jamie Raskin and Ted Deutch brought survivors of the Parkland high school shooting to meet with Blair students.

In October 2023, three school days were delayed or disrupted by phoned-in bomb threats that were discovered to be hoaxes by a 12-year-old child.

Campus
The school's campus covers 42 acres between the Capital Beltway, U.S. Route 29, and Maryland Route 193 in Silver Spring's Four Corners neighborhood. The school contains 386567 sqft of space and was designed for 2,830 students. Eight portable classrooms were erected and then removed in the 2010s as student population grew and then receded. Four new portables were added in the 2017–2018 school year to handle another enrollment spike.

The school has baseball and softball fields to the east of the main building as well as Blazer Stadium which serves as the home of the school's football, soccer, field hockey, and lacrosse teams.

The main building has three courtyards and a 750-seat auditorium. A greenhouse and accompanying patio is on the second floor on the west side for horticulture classes. The main hallway of the school, "Blair Boulevard", displays flags from many countries, representing its diverse student body.

Academics
In 2021, MBHS was ranked 49th in Maryland and 2,269th nationally by U.S. News & World Report. The school has an Honors Program and an Advanced Placement Program.

Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science Magnet program
In 1985, Montgomery County Public Schools opened its first Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science Magnet program at Blair. At the time, Blair had the highest minority population among the high schools in the county and the lowest standardized test scores. The school board conducted a survey to decide that a specialized science magnet program would attract high-achieving white and Asian students to Blair. Although there was criticism of the program from some parents and students, the leaders of the PTA and the principal supported the program, noting that by 1989 more families were staying in the neighborhood to attend Blair and fewer students were seeking to transfer out. In 1993, Superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools Paul Vance told The New York Times, "I have never seen a high school's image turn around so quickly."

The Magnet offers accelerated, interdisciplinary courses in science, mathematics, and computer science, including dozens of elective courses; in 2022, these included Quantum Physics, Complex Analysis, Thermodynamics, Discrete Mathematics, Marine Biology, 3D Computer Graphics, Artificial Intelligence, Origins of Science, and Organic Chemistry. Qualified students who are not in the program may enroll in its electives. In their senior year, Magnet students complete research projects and may enter the Science Talent Search, in which the program has a long history of success. In 2017, Magnet students had a mean SAT score of 1531 and a mean composite ACT score of 35, both of which are higher than any high school in the nation.

The Blair Magnet is open to students from the southern and eastern areas of Montgomery County, who are selected through a competitive application and testing process. (A program at Poolesville High School provides a similar curriculum for students in the northern and western areas of Montgomery County.)

The Magnet program has been criticized for being overwhelmingly white and Asian, enrolling few black and Hispanic students. The Magnet was threatened with proposed budget cuts in 2008, but after student protests, the most severe cuts were repealed.

In 2018, a retired Magnet teacher was accused of sexual harassment by many former students.

Communication Arts Program
Another magnet program, the Communication Arts Program (CAP), was established at Blair in 1988. It strives to provide a comprehensive educational approach to the humanities by offering accelerated, interdisciplinary courses in English, social studies, and media for participating students. CAP is open to students in the Downcounty Consortium and admission is competitive by application including a short essay.

CAP offers courses in drama, photography, video production, history, government, English literature, writing composition, journalism and research. The number of CAP classes decreases by year, until students only complete one CAP class in 12th grade. Freshmen and sophomores are sorted into cohorts with which they will attend all of their CAP classes. The curriculum frequently builds off of existing Advanced Placement courses but uses the program's resources to add interdisciplinary experiences, such as a simulated presidential election that occurs over the course of a week at end of 10th grade, in which some students serve as candidates and others as campaign staff and reporters. CAP students also maintain portfolios of their work throughout the four years, which must include independent and service-based projects done outside of school. In 12th grade, they must successfully defend the portfolio's contents to a faculty committee in order to complete the program and graduate with a CAP Diploma.

English Department
In addition to offering standard English courses, the English Department also offers AP courses in Language and Literature, as well as studies in dramatics, journalism, and theater.

Fine Arts Department
The Fine Arts Department consists of two sub-departments of Music and Visual Arts. The Music Department includes instrumental music, choral music, and general music. Each year the department hosts a fine arts festival, in which students showcase their artistic talent.

Instrumental Music Department
MBHS's Instrumental Music Department consists of three orchestras, three bands, and two jazz bands. The orchestras are the Chamber Orchestra (Honors), Symphonic Orchestra, and Concert Orchestra. The bands include Wind Ensemble (Honors), Symphonic Band, and Concert Band. The jazz ensembles are Advanced Jazz Ensemble (Honors), and Jazz Lab Band. In addition, the music program also contains a marching band and a theatrical pit orchestra, as well as an audio library and a professional recording studio.

In 2014, MBHS's Chamber Orchestra hosted British Composer Paul Lewis as a Composer-in-Residence funded by the Wolf Trap Foundation. Students played the world premiere of a 5-movement piece called "Salute the Silents".

Choral Music Department
The Choral Music Department consists of Chorus, Show Choir, Chamber Choir (Honors), a Cabaret, and InToneNation, an a cappella group.

General Music Department
The General Music Department offers studies in music history, technology, business, composition, and theory. There are also courses offered in solo and ensemble techniques for piano and guitar playing.

Visual Arts Department
MBHS's Visual Arts Department offers studies in art & culture, ceramics & sculpture, digital art, photography, and studio art.

Foreign Language Department
The Foreign Language Department offers classes up to AP-level in Spanish and French, and up to honors-level in Japanese and Arabic. It has recently added American Sign Language (ASL), which offer classes up to ASL 3.

Mathematics Department
The Mathematics Department offers a variety of honors- and AP-level courses, including: Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra II, Precalculus, Calculus, Statistics, and Business Mathematics.

Science Department
The Science Department contains sub-departments in the core sciences of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Earth Science.

Social Studies Department
MBHS's Social Studies Department offers honors and AP-level U.S. History, American Government and Politics, and World History, the department also offers elective courses such as African American History, Latin American History, European History, Middle East History, Comparative Government, Comparative religion, Cultural Anthropology, Administration of Justice, International Human Rights, Peace Studies Seminar, Economics, and Psychology. It was also the first in the region to offer courses in Women's Studies and the History of Hip-Hop.

Athletics
The student athletics program offers 23 varsity and 8 junior varsity sports, with a total of 42 teams:

Fall

 * Football*
 * Girls Field Hockey*
 * Boys Soccer*
 * Girls Soccer*
 * Girls Volleyball*
 * Golf
 * Cross Country*
 * Pickleball
 * Poms
 * Cheerleading

Winter

 * Boys Basketball*
 * Girls Basketball*
 * Swimming and Diving
 * Ice Hockey^
 * Wrestling
 * Indoor Track
 * Cheerleading
 * Bocce

Spring

 * Boys Baseball*
 * Girls Softball*
 * Boys Lacrosse*
 * Girls Lacrosse*
 * Track and Field
 * Boys Volleyball
 * Co-ed Volleyball
 * Boys Tennis
 * Girls Tennis
 * Gymnastics
 * Coed Softball

Year-round

 * Badminton^
 * Ultimate Frisbee^
 * Rowing^

 * * indicates a sport for which there is also a junior varsity team.
 * ^ indicates a sport that is not officially sanctioned by the school and is thus considered a club team.

Rivalries
Blair's biggest sports rivalry is with Northwood High School, another Downcounty Consortium school. Games between the schools are often dubbed "Battle of the Boulevard" because both sit on University Boulevard.

Student activities and traditions
MBHS has more than 95 teams or clubs, some of which are entirely student-run, including the Blair Radio Station, "Blazer Pride" Marching Band, Debate Team, Jewish Culture Club, and Philosophy Club. Popular activities include: American Computer Science League, Envirothon, Science Bowl, Ocean Science Bowl, Doodle4Google, and Youth and Government.

Publications
MBHS has two student news publications: Silver Chips, a self-funded print newspaper; and Silver Chips Online, an online publication that received the National Scholastic Press Association Online Pacemaker Award in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

Blair also publishes Silver Quill, a literary arts magazine whose annual issue is distributed at the end of the year; and Silver Splinter, a satirical website.

Computer team
Montgomery Blair's computer team specializes in advanced computer science topics and programming algorithms that extend the classroom curriculum. Upperclass students teach new and complex algorithms, data structures, and programming techniques. The team also delves into other miscellaneous theoretical computer science topics including turing machines, nondeterministic polynomial time, random number generation, assembly language, lambda calculus, and relational databases. The Computer Team participates in the University of Pennsylvania Programming Contest, Loyola Programming Contest, University of Maryland Programming Contest, and the United States of America Computing Olympiad (USACO). The Computer Team won the ACSL All-Star Competition Senior Division in 1991, 1993, 2001, 2003, 2009, 2011 and 2013.

Robotics team
MBHS has a FIRST Robotics Competition team, Team 449, nicknamed "The Blair Robot Project" after the film The Blair Witch Project. The team was founded in 2000, and has competed in every year since except 2005.

Puzzlepalooza
MBHS hosts Puzzlepalooza, a puzzle tournament, each May since 2010 (except the COVID-19 pandemic years of 2020 and 2021). Over four days, teams have 12 hours to complete multiple-leveled puzzles to find a phrase that figures in the final puzzle.

Quiz bowl
MBHS' quiz bowl team competes in the local It's Academic competition. It won the It's Academic Super Bowl in 1995, 2017, and 2018. and has participated several times in the High School National Championship Tournament.

Science bowl
MBHS has a science bowl team that consistently places well in the Maryland Science Bowl and won the National Science Bowl in 1999 and 2016 and the National Ocean Sciences Bowl in 2018.

History bowl
The Montgomery Blair History Bowl team won the National History Bowl Junior Varsity Championship in 2020 and the Philadelphia Championships in 2023.

BlackCAP
Established in 2016, BlackCAP is a student-run movement that helps students of color enter and thrive in Montgomery County Public School application programs. It includes a safe space for students of color in magnet programs and mentoring programs at Parkland Middle School and Silver Spring International Middle School.

Notable alumni
Blair has had many notable alumni in public service, the entertainment industry, sports, media, business, and academics.

Academics

 * Maneesh Agrawala, computer science professor at Stanford University and 2009 MacArthur Fellowship recipient
 * Tina Alster, dermatologist and founder of Washington Institute of Dermatologic Laser Surgery.
 * Malcolm Beasley, applied physics professor at Stanford University and former American Physical Society president
 * Alexander Berg, computer science associate professor at the University of California, Irvine and computer vision researcher at Meta AI
 * Jonah Berger, author and marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
 * Lorrie Cranor, computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University and former chief technologist at the Federal Trade Commission
 * Samit Dasgupta, mathematics professor at Duke University
 * David Hu, engineering professor at Georgia Tech
 * Jacob Lurie, mathematics professor at Harvard University, winner of MacArthur Fellowship, and Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics
 * Stephen Vladeck, law professor at University of Texas School of Law and expert on the prosecution of war crimes
 * Joshua Weitz, biology professor at Georgia Tech and American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow

Arts and entertainment

 * Cynthia Addai-Robinson, television actress
 * Tyrone Giordano, film and stage actor
 * Goldie Hawn, Oscar-winning actress
 * Ron Holloway, jazz saxophonist
 * Eric Hutchinson, singer-songwriter
 * Rosamond S. King, poet and literary theorist
 * Joshua Oppenheimer (finished high school in New Mexico), filmmaker
 * Chuck Redd, jazz percussionist
 * Nora Roberts, romance novelist
 * Sylvester Stallone, American actor, screenwriter, and film director (attended briefly before moving to Philadelphia)
 * Ben Stein, economist, actor, commentator, and White House speechwriter to U.S. President Richard Nixon
 * Rebecca Sugar (traveled to Albert Einstein High School for Visual Art Center Program), artist, composer, and director
 * Lisa Ann Walter, actress and comedian

Athletics

 * Steve Barber, former professional baseball player
 * Tom Brown, former baseball player for the Washington Senators and former football player for the Green Bay Packers and Washington Redskins
 * Dominique Dawes (finished high school in Gaithersburg), former Olympic gymnast
 * Steve Francis (completed GED), former professional basketball player
 * Kelli Hill, former USA Women's Gymnastics Teams coach
 * Wei-Hwa Huang, four-time World Puzzle Champion
 * Sonny Jackson, former professional baseball player, an early athlete of color at Blair
 * Johnny Klippstein, former professional baseball player and 1959 World Series champion with the Los Angeles Dodgers
 * Jake Rozhansky, professional soccer player, New England Revolution II
 * Visanthe Shiancoe, former professional football player
 * Charlene Thomas-Swinson, professional basketball player, Las Vegas Aces
 * Willis Wilson, former college basketball head coach]
 * Bob Windsor, former professional football player, New England Patriots and San Francisco 49ers
 * David Vanterpool, former professional basketball player and assistant coach
 * Morgan Wootten, head basketball coach at DeMatha Catholic High School with five national championships as a head coach

Business

 * Matías Duarte, Google executive
 * Jacqueline Hinman, former CEO of CH2M
 * Shervin Pishevar, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and co-founder of HyperOffice and Hyperloop One
 * Chris T. Sullivan, co-founder of Outback Steakhouse

Journalism and media

 * Erik Agard, crossword puzzle editor at USA Today
 * Carl Bernstein, journalist and author who uncovered the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post
 * Kiran Chetry, former television news anchor at Fox News and CNN
 * Connie Chung, journalist and television news anchor, CBS Evening News
 * Jon Fortt, CNBC anchor
 * Emily Gould, author and former co-editor of Gawker
 * Rick Leventhal, former senior correspondent at Fox News Channel
 * Tom Marr, former Baltimore Orioles radio broadcaster and WCBM radio host
 * Donna Richardson, fitness and aerobics instructor, author, and ESPN commentator
 * Inga Rundvold, former broadcast reporter at WRC-TV
 * Eric Shansby, cartoonist at The Washington Post
 * Daniel Zwerdling, former journalist at NPR

Politics and public service

 * Tyras S. Athey, former member of the Maryland House of Delegates and Secretary of State of Maryland
 * William A. Bronrott, former member of the Maryland House of Delegates
 * Robin Ficker, former member of the Maryland House of Delegates
 * Stan Greenberg, Democratic Party pollster and political strategist for Bill Clinton
 * Adam Jentleson, U.S. Senate staffer for Harry Reid and John Fetterman
 * Bernice Mireku-North, member of the Maryland House of Delegates
 * Thomas R. Norris, U.S. Navy SEAL and Medal of Honor recipient for his actions during the Vietnam War
 * William Addams Reitwiesner, genealogist and Library of Congress employee
 * Craig L. Rice, former Montgomery County Councilmember and member of the Maryland House of Delegates
 * Jeff Waldstreicher, member of the Maryland Senate
 * Christopher Williams, NASA astronaut candidate

title: Montgomery Blair High School


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Bektashi Order

The Bektashi Order or Bektashism is an Islamic Sufi mystic order originating in the 13th-century Ottoman Empire. It is named after the saint Haji Bektash Veli. The Bektashian community is currently led by Baba Mondi, their eighth Bektashi Dedebaba and headquartered in Tirana, Albania.  Collectively, adherents of Bektashism, are called Bektashians or simply Bektashis.

Originally one of many Sufi orders within Sunni Islam, by the 16th century the order adopted some tenets of Twelver Shia Islam, including a veneration of ʿAlī, the son-in-law of Muhammad, and the twelve imams; as well as a variety of syncretic beliefs. The Bektashis acquired political importance in the 15th century, when the order dominated the Janissaries. After the foundation of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Atatürk banned religious institutions that weren't part of the Directorate of Religious Affairs and the community's headquarters relocated to Albania. Salih Nijazi was the last Dede in Turkey whilst also being the first one in Albania. The order became involved in Albanian politics, and some of its members, including Ismail Kemal, were major leaders of the Albanian National Awakening.

Bektashis believe in the Ismah of the Prophets and messengers, the Twelve Imams, the Fourteen Infallibles and the current Dedebabas. In addition to the spiritual teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, the Bektashi order was later significantly influenced during its formative period by the Hurufis (in the early 15th century), the Qalandariyya stream of Sufism, figures like Ahmad Yasawi, Yunus Emre, Shah Ismail, Shaykh Haydar, Nesimi, Pir Sultan Abdal, Gül Baba, Sari Saltik and to varying degrees more broadly the Shia belief system circulating in Anatolia during the 14th to 16th centuries. The mystical practices and rituals of the Bektashi order were systematized and structured by Balım Sultan in the 16th century.

According to a 2005 estimate made by Reshat Bardhi, there are over seven million Bektashis worldwide, though more recent studies put the figure as high as 20 million. In Albania, they make up 20% of the Muslim population, and 2.5% of the country's population. An additional 12.5 million Bektashis live in Turkey. Bektashis are mainly found throughout Anatolia, the Balkans and among Ottoman-era Greek Muslim communities. The term “Alevi-Bektashi” is currently a widely and frequently used expression in the religious discourse of Turkey as an umbrella term for the two religious groups of Alevism and Bektashism.

Origins and establishment
The Bektashiyya originated in Anatolia as the followers of the 13th-century scholar Bektash. The doctrines and rituals of the Bektashiyya were codified by the mystic Balim Sultan, who is considered the ('the Second Elder') by Bektashis.

It was originally founded as a Sufi movement. The branch became widespread in the Ottoman Empire, their lodges scattered throughout Anatolia as well as in the Balkans. It became the official order of the Janissary corps, the elite infantry corp of the Ottoman Army. Therefore, they also became mainly associated with Anatolian and Balkan Muslims of Eastern Orthodox convert origin, mainly Albanians and northern Greeks (although most leading Bektashi babas were of southern Albanian origin). In 1826, the Bektashi order was banned throughout the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Mahmud II for having close ties with the Janissary corps. Many Bektashi dervishes were exiled, and some were executed. Their tekkes were destroyed and their revenues were confiscated. This decision was supported by the Sunni religious elite as well as the leaders of other, more orthodox, Sufi orders. Bektashis slowly regained freedom with the coming of the Tanzimat era. After the foundation of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Atatürk shut down the lodges in 1925. Consequently, the Bektashi leadership moved to Albania and established their headquarters in the city of Tirana. Among the most famous followers of Bektashi in the 19th century Balkans were Ali Pasha     and Naim Frashëri.

Dedebabate
After lodges in Turkey were shut down, the order's headquarters moved to Albania. On 20 March 1930, Sali Njazi was elected as the First Dedebaba of the Bektashi community. Njazi established the Bektashi World Headquarters in Tirana. Its construction was finished in 1941 during the Italian occupation of Albania. Njazi promoted Bektashi Islam by introducing major ceremonies at popular tekkes. After he was murdered, Ali Riza succeeded him as the Dedebaba.

Despite the negative effect of the ban of lodges on Bektashi culture, most Bektashis in Turkey have been generally supportive of secularism to this day, since these reforms have relatively relaxed the religious intolerance that had historically been shown against them by the official Sunni establishment.

In the Balkans the Bektashi order had a considerable impact on the Islamization of many areas, primarily Albania and Bulgaria, as well as parts of Macedonia, particularly among Ottoman-era Greek Muslims from western Greek Macedonia such as the Vallahades. By the 18th century Bektashism began to gain a considerable hold over the population of southern Albania and northwestern Greece (Epirus and western Greek Macedonia). Following the ban on Sufi orders in the Republic of Turkey, the Bektashi community's headquarters was moved from Hacıbektaş in central Anatolia, to Tirana, Albania. In Albania, the Bektashi community declared its separation from the Sunni community and they were perceived ever after as a distinct Islamic sect rather than a branch of Sunni Islam. Bektashism continued to flourish until the Second World War. After the communists took power in 1945, several babas and dervishes were executed and a gradual constriction of Bektashi influence began. Ultimately, in 1967 all tekkes were shut down when Enver Hoxha banned all religious practice. When this ban was rescinded in 1990 the Bektashism reestablished itself, although there were few left with any real knowledge of the spiritual path. Nevertheless, many "tekkes" (lodges) operate today in Albania. The most recent head of the order in Albania was Hajji Reshat Bardhi Dedebaba (1935–2011) and the main tekke has been reopened in Tirana. In June 2011 Baba Edmond Brahimaj was chosen as the head of the Bektashi order by a council of Albanian babas. Today sympathy for the order is generally widespread in Albania where approximately 20% of Muslims identify themselves as having some connection to Bektashism.

There are also important Bektashi communities among the Albanian communities of North Macedonia and Kosovo, the most important being the Arabati Baba Teḱe in the city of Tetovo, which was until recently under the guidance of Baba Tahir Emini (1941–2006). Following the death of Baba Tahir Emini, the dedelik of Tirana appointed Baba Edmond Brahimaj (known as Baba Mondi), formerly head of the Turan Tekke of Korçë, to oversee the Harabati baba tekke. A splinter branch of the order has recently sprung up in the town of Kičevo which has ties to the Turkish Bektashi community under Haydar Ercan Dede rather than Tirana. A smaller Bektashi tekke, the Dikmen Baba Tekkesi, is in operation in the Turkish-speaking town of Kanatlarci, North Macedonia that also has stronger ties with Turkey's Bektashis. In Kosovo, the relatively small Bektashi community has a tekke in the town of Gjakovë and is under the leadership of Baba Mumin Lama and it recognizes the leadership of Tirana.

In Bulgaria, the türbes of Kıdlemi Baba, Ak Yazılı Baba, Demir Baba and Otman Baba function as heterodox Islamic pilgrimage sites and before 1842 were the centers of Bektashi tekkes.

Bektashis continue to be active in Turkey and their semi-clandestine organizations can be found in Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir. There are currently two rival claimants to the dedebaba in Turkey: Mustafa Eke and Haydar Ercan.

A large functioning Bektashi tekke was also established in the United States in 1954 by Baba Rexheb. This tekke is found in the Detroit suburb of Taylor and the tomb (türbe) of Baba Rexheb continues to draw pilgrims of all faiths.

Arabati Baba Teḱe controversy
In 2002, a group of armed members of the Islamic Religious Community of Macedonia (ICM), a Sunni group that is the legally recognized organisation which claims to represent all Muslims in North Macedonia, invaded the Shiʻi Bektashi Order's Arabati Baba Teḱe in an attempt to reclaim this tekke as a mosque although the facility has never functioned as such. Subsequently, the Bektashi Order of North Macedonia sued the government for failing to restore the tekke to the Bektashis, pursuant to a law passed in the early 1990s returning properties previously nationalized under the Yugoslav government. The law, however, deals with restitution to private citizens, rather than religious communities.

The ICM claim to the tekke is based upon their contention to represent all Muslims in North Macedonia; and indeed, they are one of two Muslim organizations recognized by the government, both Sunni. The Bektashi community filed for recognition as a separate religious community with the Macedonian government in 1993, but the Macedonian government has refused to recognize them.

Beliefs
Bektashis believe in God and follow all the prophets. Bektashis claim the heritage of Haji Bektash Veli, who was a descendant of Ali, Husayn ibn Ali, Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin and other Imams. Therefore, Bektashis follow the teachings of Haji Bektash, who preached about the Twelve Imams. Bektashis differ from other Muslims by also following the Fourteen Innocents, who either died in infancy or were martyred with Husayn. Abbas ibn Ali is also an important figure in Bektashi Islam, and Bektashi Muslims visit Mount Tomorr to honor him during an annual pilgrimage to the Abbas Ali Türbe on August 20–25.

In addition to the Muslim daily five prayers, Bektashi Muslims have two specific prayers, one at dawn and one at dusk for the welfare of all humanity. Bektashism places much emphasis on the concept of Wahdat al-Wujud (وحدة الوجود) that was formulated by Ibn Arabi.

Malakat is an important text of Bektashi written by Haji Bektash. Bektashis also follow the Quran and Hadith.

Bektashis follow the modern-day Bektashi Dedebabate, currently headed by Baba Mondi. Bektashis consider the dedebaba as their leader overseeing the entire branch.

Bektashism is also heavily permeated with Shiite concepts, such as the marked reverence of Ali, the Twelve Imams, and the ritual commemoration of Ashura marking the Battle of Karbala. The old Persian holiday of Nowruz is celebrated by Bektashis as Ali's birthday (see also Nevruz in Albania).

The Bektashi Order is a Sufi order and shares much in common with other Islamic mystical movements, such as the need for an experienced spiritual guide—called a baba in Bektashi parlance — as well as the doctrine of "the four gates that must be traversed": the "Sharia" (religious law), "Tariqah" (the spiritual path), "Marifa" (true knowledge), "Haqiqa" (truth).

There are many other practices and ceremonies that share similarities with other faiths, such as a ritual meal (muhabbet) and yearly confession of sins to a baba (magfirat-i zunub مغفرة الذنوب). Bektashis base their practices and rituals on their non-orthodox and mystical interpretation and understanding of the Quran and the prophetic practice (Sunnah). They have no written doctrine specific to them, thus rules and rituals may differ depending on under whose influence one has been taught. Bektashis generally revere Sufi mystics outside of their own order, such as ibn Arabi, al-Ghazali and Rumi, who are close in spirit to them despite many of being from more mainstream Islamic backgrounds.

Rakia, a fruit brandy, is used as a sacramental element by the Bektashi Order, and Alevi Jem ceremonies, where it is not considered alcoholic and is referred to as "dem".

Poetry and literature
Poetry plays an important role in the transmission of Bektashi spirituality. Several important Ottoman-era poets were Bektashis, and Yunus Emre, the most acclaimed poet of the Turkish language, is generally recognized as a subscriber to the Bektashi order.

Like many Sufis, the Bektashis were quite lax in observing daily Muslim laws, and women as well as men took part in ritual wine drinking and dancing during devotional ceremonies. The Bektashis in the Balkans adapted such Christian practices as the ritual sharing of bread and the confession of sins. Bektashi mystical writings made a rich contribution to Sufi poetry.

A poem from Bektashi poet Balım Sultan (died c. 1517/1519): ":İstivayı özler gözüm, (My eye seeks out repose,)
 * Seb'al-mesânîdir yüzüm, (my face is the 'oft repeated seven (i.e. the Sura Al-Fatiha),)
 * Ene'l-Hakk'ı söyler sözüm, (My words proclaim 'I am the Truth',)
 * Miracımız dardır bizim, (Our ascension is (by means of) the scaffold,)
 * Haber aldık muhkemattan, (We have become aware through the 'firm letters',)
 * Geçmeyiz zâttan sıfattan, (We will not abandon essence or attributes,)
 * Balım nihan söyler Hakk'tan, (Balım speaks arcanely of God)
 * İrşâdımız sırdır bizim. (Our teaching is a mystery. )"

Community hierarchy
Like most other Sufi orders, Bektashism is initiatic, and members must traverse various levels or ranks as they progress along the spiritual path to the Reality. The Turkish names are given below, followed by their Arabic and Albanian equivalents.
 * 1) First-level members are called aşıks عاشق (ashik). They are those who, while not having taken initiation into the order, are nevertheless drawn to it.
 * 2) Following initiation (called nasip), one becomes a mühip محب (muhib).
 * 3) After some time as a mühip, one can take further vows and become a dervish.
 * 4) The next level above dervish is that of baba. The baba (lit. father) (atë) is considered to be the head of a tekke and qualified to give spiritual guidance (irshad إرشاد).
 * 5) Above the baba (gjysh) is the rank of halife-baba (or dede, grandfather).
 * 6) The dedebaba (kryegjysh) is traditionally considered to be the highest ranking authority in the Bektashi Order. Traditionally the residence of the dedebaba was the Pir Evi (The Saint's Home) which was located in the shrine of Hajji Bektash Wali in the central Anatolian town of Hacıbektaş (aka Solucakarahüyük), known as the Hajibektash complex.

Traditionally there were twelve of these hierarchical rankings, the most senior being the dedebaba (great-grandfather).

Administration
In Albania, the World Headquarters of the Bektashi (Kryegjyshata) divides the country into 6 different administrative districts (similar to Christian parishes and patriarchates), each of which is called a gjyshata.

 * The Gjyshata of Gjirokastra (headquarters: tekke of Asim Bab): the regions of Gjirokastra, Saranda and Tepelena.
 * The Gjyshata of Korça (headquarters: tekke of Turan): the regions of Korça, Devoll, Pogradec and Kolonja, including Leskovik.
 * The Gjyshata of Kruja (headquarters: tekke of Fushë Kruj): the regions of Kruja, Kurbin, Bulqiza, Dibra, Mat, Shkodra and Durrës.
 * The Gjyshata of Elbasan (headquarters: tekke of Baba Xhefai): the regions of Elbasan, Gramsh, Peqin, Lushnja, Kavaja, and Librazhd, including Përrenjas.
 * The Gjyshata of Vlora (headquarters: tekke of Kusum Bab): the regions of Vlora, Mallakastra, Fier, including Patos and Roskovec.
 * The Gjyshata of Berat (headquarters: tekke of Prisht): the regions of Berat, Skrapar and Përmet.

During the 1930s, the six gjyshata of Albania set up by Sali Njazi were:

 * Kruja, headquartered at the tekke of Fushë-Krujë
 * Elbasan, headquartered at the tekke of Krastë, Dibër
 * Korça, headquartered at the tekke of Melçan
 * Gjirokastra, headquartered at the tekke of Asim Baba
 * Prishta, representing Berat and part of Përmet
 * Vlora, headquartered at the tekke of Frashër

National headquarters in other countries are located in:
 * Gjakova, Kosovo
 * Tetova, North Macedonia
 * Taylor, Michigan, United States

There is also a Bektashi office in Brussels, Belgium.

World Bektashi Congress
The World Bektashi Congress, also called the National Congress of the Bektashi, a conference during which members of the Bektashi Community make important decisions, has been held in Albania several times. Since 1945, it has been held exclusively in Tirana. The longest gap between two congresses lasted from 1950 to 1993, when congresses could not be held during Communist rule in Albania. A list of congresses is given below.

List of Dedebabas
This section lists the Dedebabas (Supreme Leaders) of the Bektashi Order.

In Turkey (before 1930)
List of Bektashi Dedebabas (mostly based in Hacıbektaş, Anatolia), prior to the 1925 exodus of the Bektashi Order from Turkey to Albania:

• Haji Bektash Veli (1282-1341)

• Hidër Llalla (1341-1361)

• Resul Balli (1361-1441)

• Jusuf Balli (1400s)

• Myrsel Balli (1400s)

• Balım Sultan (1509-1516)

• Sersem Ali Dede Baba (1551-1569)

• Eihaxh Ahmed Dede Baba (1569-1569)

• Ak Abdulla Dede Baba (1569-1596)

• Kara Halil Dede Baba (1596-1628)

• Eihaxh Vahdeti Dede (1628-1649)

• Eihaxh Sejjid Mustafa Dede Baba (1649-1675)

• Ibrahim Agjah Dede Baba (1675-1689)

• Halil Ibrahim Dede Baba (1689-1714)

• Haxhi Hasan Dede Baba (1714-1736)

• Hanzade Mehmed Kylhan Dede (1736-1759)

• Sejjid Kara Ali Dede Baba (1759-1783)

• Sejjid Dede Baba (1783-1790)

• Haxhi Mehmed Nuri Dede Baba (1790-1799)

• Haxhi Halil Haki Dede Baba (1799-1813)

• Mehmed Nebi Dede Baba (1813-1834)

• Haxhi Ibrahim Dede Baba (1834-1835)

• Sejjid Haxhi Mahmud Dede Baba (1835-1846)

• Saatxhi Dede Baba (1846-1848)

• Sejjid Hasan Dede Baba (1848-1849)

• Elhaxh Ali Turabi Dede Baba (1849-1868)

• Haxhi Hasan Dede Baba (1868-1874)

• Perishan Hafizali Dede Baba (1874-1879)

• Mehmed Ali Hilmi Dede Baba (1879-1907)

• Haxhi Mehmed Ali Dede Baba (1907-1910)

• Haxhi Fejzullah Dede Baba (1910-1913)

• Sali Njazi Dede Baba (1913-1925)

In Albania (1930–present)
List of Bektashi Dedebabas following the 1925 exodus of the Bektashi Order from Turkey to Albania:

Religious figures
• Some notable Bektashi religious and legendary figures are:

• Abaz Hilmi, Dede Baba, of the Tekke of Frashër (1887–1947)

• Abbas ibn Ali

• Abdullah Baba of Melçan (1786–1857 (–1853?))

• Abedin Baba of Leskovik

• Adem Baba of Prizren (d. 1894)

• Adem Vexh-hi Baba of Gjakova (1841–1927)

• Ahmet Baba of Prishta (d. 1902)

• Ahmet Baba of Turan (1854–1928)

• Ahmet Karadja

• Ahmet Myftari, Dede Baba (1916–1980)

• Ahmet Sirri Baba of Mokattam (1895–1963)

• Ali Baba of Berat

• Ali Baba of Tomorr (1900–1948)

• Ali Baba Horasani of Fushë Kruja (d. 1562)

• Ali Haqi Baba of Gjirokastra (1827–1907)

• Ali Riza of Elbasan, Dede Baba (1876–1944)

• Alush Baba of Frashër (c. 1816–1896)

• Arshi Baba of Durballi Sultan (1906–2015)

• Arshi Baba of Gjirokastra (d. 1621)

• Asim Baba of Gjirokastra (d. 1796)

• Balim Sultan of Dimetoka (1457–1517)

• Dylgjer Hysejni of Elbasan (b. 1959)

• Edmond Brahimaj, Dede Baba (1910–1947)

• Faja Martaneshi Baba

• Fetah Baba of Backa

• Hajdar Hatemi Baba of Gjonëm (early 19th century)

• Hajdër Baba of Kardhiq (d. 1904)

• Haji Bektash Veli (1248–1337) (Albanian: Haxhi Bektashi Veli; Turkish: Hacı Bektaş Veli)

• Hasan Dede of Përmet

• Haxhi Baba Horasani of Përmet (d. 1620)

• Haxhi Baba of Fushë Kruja

• Hidër Baba of Makedonski Brod

• Hysen Baba of Melçan (d. 1914)

• Hysen Kukeli Baba of Fushë Kruja (1822–1893)

• Ibrahim Baba of Qesaraka (d. 1930)

• Ibrahim Xhefai Baba of Elbasan (d. 1829)

• Iljaz Vërzhezha, Dervish (d. 1923)

• Kamber Ali, Dede Baba (1869–1950)

• Kasem Baba of Kastoria (late 15th century)

• Kusum Baba of Vlora

• Lutfi Baba of Mokattam (1849–1942)

• Mehmet Baba of Fushë Kruja (1882–1934)

• Meleq Shëmbërdhenji Baba (1842–1918)

• Muharrem Baba of Frashër (early 19th century)

• Muharrem Mahzuni Baba of Durballi Sultan (d. 1867)

• Myrteza Baba of Fushë Kruja (1912–1947)

• Qazim Baba of Elbasan (1891–1962)

• Qazim Baba of Gjakova (1895–1981)

• Qamil Baba of Gllava (d. 1946)

• Reshat Bardhi, Dede Baba (1935–2011)

• Rexheb Baba of Gjirokastra (1901–1995)

• Salih Baba of Matohasanaj (19th to 20th centuries)

• Salih Nijazi, Dede Baba (1876–1941)

• Sari Saltik

• Seit Baba of Durballi Sultan (d. 1973)

• Selim Kaliçani Baba of Martanesh (1922–2001)

• Selim Ruhi Baba of Gjirokastra (1869–1944)

• Selman Xhemali Baba of Elbasan (d. 1949)

• Sersem Ali Baba of Tetova (d. 1569)

• Shemimi Baba of Fushë Kruja (1748–1803)

• Sulejman Baba of Gjirokastra (d. 1934)

• Tahir Nasibi Baba of Frashër (d. 1835)

• Tahir Baba of Prishta (19th century)

• Xhafer Sadiku, Dede Baba (1874–1945)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Bektashi Order


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Bajrak

The bajrak (pronounced or , meaning "banner" or "flag") was an Ottoman territorial unit, consisting of villages in mountainous frontier regions of the Balkans, from which military recruitment was based. It was introduced in the late 17th century and continued its use until the end of Ottoman rule in Rumelia. The bajrak included one or more clans. It was especially implemented in northern Albania and in parts of Kosovo (Sanjak of Prizren and Sanjak of Scutari), where in the 19th century these regions constituted the frontier with the Principality of Serbia and Principality of Montenegro. These sanjaks had notable communities of Gheg Albanians (Muslims and Catholics), Serbs and Slavic Muslims. The Albanians adopted the system into their clan structure, and bajraks endured during the Kingdom of Serbia (1882–1918) and People's Socialist Republic of Albania (1944–1992).

Overview
The bajrak was a territorial unit of the Ottoman Empire, consisting of a group of villages, from which military recruitment was organized – a "territorialized military organization." The bajrak was composed of one or more clans. Several smaller clans could inhabit a single bajrak while larger clans occupied several bajrak; usually a bajraktar ("standard-bearer") led a clan, while in some cases a bajraktar led several clans or a single clan had several bajraktars. The Ottomans entrusted the bajraktar with providing soldiers from his bajrak in exchange for privileges, and sometimes he performed important administrative and judicial duties. The bajraktar was usually hereditary position, via paternal ancestry appointed by the Ottoman government. Bajraks formed loose tribal confederations; for example, the Shala joined the Shoshi.

The bajrak system existed in many mountainous ethnographic regions, such as Lumë.

In Albania
According to Enke (1955), the Dukagjin highlands was inhabited by the "six bajraks, Shala, Shoshi, Kir, Gjaj, Plan, and Toplan," while according to Prothero (1973), it then included "Pulati, Shala and Shoshi, Dushmani, Toplana, Nikaj, and Merturi."

In Serbia and Yugoslavia
In Kosovo, after the conquest by Kingdom of Serbia, the Albanians incorporated the bajrak into their clan system (known as fis). The Yugoslav authorities tried to break up the feudal relations created through this system.

title: Bajrak


text:
William Bulger

William Michael Bulger (born February 2, 1934) is an American former Democratic politician, lawyer, and educator from South Boston, Massachusetts. His eighteen-year tenure as President of the Massachusetts Senate is the longest in history. After leaving office, he became president of the University of Massachusetts.

Bulger came from Old Harbor Village Housing Development (now more commonly known as the Mary Ellen McCormick Housing Development). He graduated from Boston College High School in 1952, then from Boston College in Classics, then from Boston College Law School.

Despite his brother's infamy as the convicted mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger, who led the Winter Hill Gang, investigators have never uncovered any evidence that the two brothers colluded. In 2003 he testified in a congressional hearing about communications he had with his then-fugitive brother. Due to the negative publicity, he was forced to resign from the presidency of the University of Massachusetts. Bulger went on to teach as a visiting scholar at Suffolk University, but has since removed himself from public life.

Bulger is now retired and lives in South Boston's City Point section.

Early life
William Bulger's father, James Joseph Bulger Sr., was from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland. After settling in Everett, Massachusetts, James Sr. married Jane Veronica "Jean" McCarthy, a first-generation Irish immigrant. William Bulger was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and is the third of six children in the family, and younger brother of former mob boss James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger Jr. (1929–2018).

Bulger's father worked as a union laborer and occasional longshoreman; he lost his arm in an industrial accident and the family was reduced to poverty. In May 1938, when Bulger was four years old, the family moved to South Boston's Old Harbor Village housing project, soon after it opened. He grew up there and has maintained lifelong friendships with many of those who were his former neighbors, including best friend, Korean War Marine P.O.W. and Purple Heart recipient Fred L. Toomey. The late Congressman Joe Moakley (1927–2001) was also a close childhood neighbor. Although the Bulger family was poor, William matriculated into Boston College High School. He enrolled at Boston College in 1952, but his undergraduate career was interrupted when he joined the United States Army. He served from September 1953 to November 1955, then returned to Boston College, completing his undergraduate degree in English Literature with the help of the G.I. Bill. He attended Boston College Law School, from which he received his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree in 1961. He is also the recipient of over 20 honorary degrees from a variety of academic institutions.

Political career
Bulger became interested in politics in 1959 and was first elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1960. After serving five terms, Bulger was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate in 1970 representing the First Suffolk District. In 1973, he was named Second Assistant Floor Majority Leader. After Joseph DiCarlo's conviction for extortion in 1977, Bulger succeeded him as Senate Majority Leader. Bulger was elected President of the Massachusetts State Senate in 1978 and was re-elected every two years through 1996, making his time as State Senate president the longest tenure in Massachusetts history.

Like other Massachusetts politicians who were elected leaders of their legislative chambers, Bulger was frequently pilloried in the media, but remained very popular in his district. He won his district election every two years from 1961 to 1994 without ever facing a serious challenger other than in the Democratic primary in 1988, when Stephen Holt, a neophyte liberal activist and bookstore owner from Dorchester, won 31 out of 60 precincts, only to lose by a landslide due to the huge turnout of Bulger supporters in South Boston.

Bulger appeared in Primary Motive as Senator William Bulger.

For many years, Bulger hosted the annual St. Patrick's Day Breakfast in South Boston; it is a "roast" of politicians.

Political milestones

Bulger was a leading opponent of the desegregation of Boston schools achieved through busing. During one protest, he called the police who were arresting protestors against desegregation "the Gestapo".

During the 1960s, Bulger led efforts to write the first child abuse reporting laws in the state. He was supportive of environmental protection legislation.

Bulger was among the first advocates of charter schools and public school choice. During the 1980s, he advocated funding of public libraries, the expansion of childhood nutrition services and fuel assistance programs. As Senate president, Bulger led the debate on welfare reform in the early 1990s, with the resulting legislation becoming the model for a national law.

President of the University of Massachusetts system
Bulger was appointed president of the University of Massachusetts by the board of trustees on November 28, 1995. His candidacy for the UMass position was supported by Governor William Weld. The appointment was controversial in academic circles, as Bulger had no prior experience in higher education, and lacked the academic doctoral degree usually required for the presidency of a major state university system.

On August 6, 2003, Bulger announced that he would resign as president of the system effective September 1, 2003. His resignation came due to pressure from Governor Mitt Romney after Bulger had refused to cooperate with authorities who were searching for Bulger's brother, the notorious mobster James "Whitey" Bulger.

Extortion investigation
In 1989, a close associate of Bulger, Thomas Finnerty, was accused of extorting $500,000 from a real estate developer, Harold Brown. Bulger received $240,000 of the payment. Both men maintained that it was a loan from Brown. After an investigation by U.S. Attorney Jeremiah O'Sullivan, no charges against Bulger were pressed.

Controversy over brother
Bulger's older brother James "Whitey" Bulger Jr. was a convicted crime boss and multiple murderer and the former boss of the Winter Hill Gang. Whitey was a fugitive from 1995 until his arrest in June 2011.

In 1999, Whitey's longtime aide, Kevin Weeks, pleaded guilty to a number of charges related to Whitey's crime spree and became a cooperating witness. Weeks revealed that in 1995, William talked to Whitey during an arranged phone conversation just two weeks after Whitey fled a pending racketeering indictment. When William testified before a grand jury in 2001, a federal prosecutor pressed him without success for information on his brother: "So just to be clear, you felt more loyalty to your brother than you did to the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts? I never thought about it that way, Bulger replied. But I do have an honest loyalty to my brother, and I care about him (…) It’s my hope that I'm never helpful to anyone against him (…) I don't have an obligation to help everyone catch him." When asked why he didn't urge Whitey to turn himself in, William replied that he didn't feel it was in his brother's best interest to give himself up at the time.

After portions of Bulger's testimony were published in The Boston Globe, he testified to a Congressional committee about the incident on June 19, 2003, after being granted immunity from prosecution for obstruction of justice. Bulger revealed that he went to an arranged location in 1995 to take a call from his fugitive brother, apparently to avoid electronic eavesdropping. He claimed that not notifying authorities about the call was "in no way inconsistent with my devotion to my own responsibilities, my public responsibilities" as state senate president.

During the hearing, when asked what he thought James (Whitey) did for a living, William Bulger said:

"I had the feeling that he was in the business of gaming and ... whatever. It was vague to me but I didn't think, for a long while he had some jobs but ultimately it was clear that he was not being, you know, he wasn't doing what I'd like him to do."

He added that he loved his brother and hoped that the most brutal rumors concerning him would be proven false.

Bulger came under harsh criticism for his apparent evasiveness, and Governor Mitt Romney, among others, demanded his resignation as president of the University of Massachusetts. Under pressure from all quarters, Bulger resigned in the fall of 2003.

Bulger also testified that the FBI never asked if he knew of Whitey's location. Those remarks were disputed by a former FBI agent who claimed Bulger declined to submit to an interview with the FBI. Months later, the committee report found Bulger's testimony "inconsistent" about whether the FBI had contacted him in its search for his fugitive brother.

Upon Whitey's arrest in California in June 2011, William Bulger issued a statement expressing his "sympathies to the families hurt" in the case, and asking for privacy for his family.

Active retirement and family
Bulger is a past president of the Boston Public Library and past member of the board of trustees. He is also overseer emeritus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he is a former member of the Massachusetts General Hospital board of trustees, Museum of Fine Arts board of trustees, and McLean Hospital board of trustees. He joined the faculties of Boston College and Suffolk University as a lecturer of political science in 2004. Bulger lived in South Boston with Mary Foley (1935–2020), his wife whom he married in 1960 until her death on June 7, 2020. Bulger and his wife have nine children and 33 grandchildren. According to the Massachusetts Open Checkbook list of state pensions, Bulger's pension from Massachusetts for his position as University of Massachusetts president ranged from $198,926 to $201,266 for the years 2011 to 2019.

Biographical works

 * Bulger, William M. While the Music Lasts: My Life in Politics. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1996. ISBN 0-395-72041-9.
 * Bulger, William M. James Michael Curley: A Short Biography with Personal Reminiscences by William M. Bulger. Beverly, Massachusetts: Commonwealth Editions, 2009. ISBN 978-1-933212-97-5.
 * Burke, John J. A Profile in Political Power, a 2010 documentary produced by JAMAR Productions, highlights the political career of William M. Bulger.

title: William Bulger


text:
Richard Montgomery High School

Richard Montgomery High School (RMHS) is a public high school located in Rockville, Maryland. It is part of the Montgomery County Public Schools system. RMHS hosts the county's most competitive and far-reaching International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.

History
Richard Montgomery High School is the oldest public high school in Montgomery County. It was first established in 1892 as "Rockville High School", when the state Board of Education first allocated funds to local school to educate high school students. The first class of twelve seniors graduated in 1897.

A new high school was constructed and opened for use in September 1905 on East Montgomery Avenue and Monroe Street. An addition was built in 1917, expanding the school to 19 classrooms. Rockville Colored High School was opened in 1927. The school for white students was renamed Richard Montgomery High School (after a Major General Richard Montgomery, who had been a slave holder ) to distinguish between the two in 1935.

After a fire destroyed the old high school building in 1940, the building was rebuilt on the current site in 1942, measuring 49167 sqft. Additions to the school were made in 1952 at 39895 sqft, 1959 at 37425 sqft, in 1964 at 56703 sqft, 1969 at 4000 sqft, 1975 at 35890 sqft, 1976 at 8300 sqft, and 1988 at 1938 sqft. By this point, the campus had reached 26.2 acres (106,000 m²) in size.

In April 2008 stories appeared in The Washington Post, the Montgomery County Gazette, and the Montgomery Sentinel, alleging that the school principal, Moreno Carrasco, had been running a private business on school time and was using materials that appeared to be plagiarized from a seminar that he had attended at school district expense. Carrasco went on extended sick leave.

During Carrasco's absence, the student newspaper, The Tide, requested that administrators approve publication of an article about the investigation into Carrasco's alleged ethics violations and business endeavors. Assistant Principal Veronica McCall denied permission for publication of the article, but was overridden by Community Superintendent Dr. Sherry Liebes after The Tide editors announced that they would go public with news of the denial. The article was finally published online on April 24, 2008.

On June 10, 2008, Montgomery County Public Schools announced that Carrasco had been named the new director of secondary leadership training. The announcement also stated that the allegations about Carrasco's involvement in private consulting were "thoroughly investigated" and "not substantiated".

On June 23, 2008, Nelson McLeod II was named the new principal of Richard Montgomery High School. He left the position in May 2014 due to a cardiac medical condition, and was replaced by Damon Monteleone in July 2014.

In 2020, a petition was started to rename the school due to its namesake, Richard Montgomery, being a slave owner.

Campus
Richard Montgomery opened a new $71 million building following the end of students' 2007 winter break. The new building features wireless internet for the teachers which has since been opened to student access, LCD projectors in every classroom, dozens of Promethean interactive whiteboards and learner response devices, a modern auditorium, and a recording and TV studio.

The school has an artificial turf stadium next to tennis courts and a track.

Areas Served
Richard Montgomery serves students living in Rockville and a small portion in Potomac. It feeds from one middle school and five elementary schools:

 * Julius West Middle School
 * Beall Elementary School
 * College Gardens Elementary School
 * Ritchie Park Elementary School
 * Bayard Rustin Elementary School
 * Twinbrook Elementary Schol

Potential Future Boundary Changes
As of the 2023-24 school year, RMHS projects to be over-enrolled for the next 15 years with its current attendance zones. To address these concerns, along with overutilization among other nearby schools, the county is conducting a boundary study for the new Crown High School, which has an expected completion date of August 2027.

Academics
The school houses Montgomery County's first International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB). This competitive-entry magnet programme draws students from all over Montgomery County and has an IB diploma rate of 97%, the highest of its kind in the United States. The IB programme has an approximately 12.5% acceptance rate for incoming freshmen. Entry is based middle school transcripts, and a personal essay.

Incoming freshmen who have been accepted into the IB programme are first enrolled in a special two-year programme consisting of courses designed to prepare them for more rigorous IB courses they will take in their junior and senior years. This also serves as a continuation of the final two years of the Middle Years Programme (MYP). The first three years of the MYP programme are offered to all students who attend Julius West Middle School, which is the sole middle school that feeds into RM. The MYP curriculum stresses "life long learning," "critical thinking," and "responsible global citizenship." It is a five-year programme designed for students in grades 6–10, and all Richard Montgomery students participate regardless of whether they are in the IB programme or whether they participated in middle school. Upon completion, non-IB students can apply to enroll in the IB programme. Students are accepted each year through this secondary application process for the IB programme.

In 2007, Richard Montgomery was featured in Newsweek magazine as the 27th highest-rated high school in the nation. In June 2002, it won its first award in National Scholastic Championship at George Washington University. Richard Montgomery High School won the 2003 Blue Ribbon in Education Award by the United States Department of Education. RM has been identified as the number one school in the D.C. metropolitan area in the Challenge Index for Rigor. Richard Montgomery has also had multiple Marian Greenblatt Education Fund award winner teachers.

As of 2024, Richard Montgomery is the 6th-ranked high school in Maryland and the 394th-ranked nationwide, according to U.S News and World Report.

Richard Montgomery students average a score of 1236 on the SAT, averaging 621 on the verbal section and 615 on the math section.

Activities
Richard Montgomery has a student newspaper, The Tide, and a student literary magazine, Fine Lines. The Tide received First Place with Special Merit from the America Scholastic Press Association in 2013. Fine Lines has received various Gold Crown Awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, including in 2003.

Richard Montgomery's quizbowl team (known as It's Academic) won the National Scholastics Championship in 2002. In 2006, they won the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament in Chicago.

Richard Montgomery's International Space Settlement Design Competition team won the 2008 cycle in Houston, Texas.

The Richard Montgomery Mock Trial team is the school's most decorated varsity team. Under longtime coach Daniel Evans, who retired in 2024, the team won twenty-six Montgomery County championships, reached fifteen statewide Final Fours, appeared in ten state finals, and won five state championships, most recently in 2019 and 2023. The team's margin of victory in the 2019 championship was the largest in state history.

Music ensembles
Ensembles such as the Madrigals, a chamber choir, and the Jazz Band often travel off campus to perform at various venues. The Philharmonic/Chamber ensemble is the highest ranking orchestra in the school. The marching band, the Marching Rockets, is also a part of football season.

Notable alumni

 * Will Allen, former professional basketball player, urban farmer entrepreneur, and MacArthur Award winner
 * Tori Amos, singer
 * Norman Bellingham, Olympic athlete
 * Wolfgang Bodison, actor
 * Gordy Coleman, Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman
 * Mike Curtis, National Football League (NFL) linebacker
 * Russell C. Davis, mayor of Jackson, Mississippi from 1969-1977
 * Mahan Esfahani, harpsichordist
 * Rhadi Ferguson, judo and MMA athlete
 * Dan Fishback, singer-songwriter
 * Julia Galef, writer and philosopher
 * Kyra D. Gaunt, ethnomusicologist, TED Speaker
 * Caroline Green and Gordon Green, figure skaters
 * Marc Korman, state delegate
 * Thuan Pham, former CTO of Uber
 * Zachary Pincus-Roth, author
 * Tuan Wreh, Liberian triple jumper
 * Jim Riggleman, MLB manager
 * Kurt Schork, journalist
 * Joseph Takahashi, neurobiologist, member of the National Academy of Sciences

title: Richard Montgomery High School


text:
Menelik I

Menelik I (Ge'ez: ምኒልክ, Mənilək) was the legendary first Emperor of Ethiopia. According to Kebra Nagast, a 14th-century national epic, in the 10th century BC he is said to have inaugurated the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia, so named because Menelik I was the son of the biblical King Solomon of ancient Israel and of Makeda, the Queen of Sheba.

Life
According to the medieval Ethiopian book, the Kebra Nagast, written in Geʽez in 1321 CE,  his name was Bäynä Ləḥkəm (from ابن الحكيم, Ibn Al-Hakim, "son of the wise" ). He was conceived when his father Solomon tricked his visiting mother, the Queen of Sheba, into sleeping with him. His mother raised him as Jewish in her homeland, and he only traveled to Jerusalem to meet his father for the first time when he was in his twenties. While his father begged Menelik to stay and rule over Israel, Menelik told him that he wanted to return home. Thus, Solomon sent many Israelites with him, to aid him in ruling according to biblical standards; which were aggrieved at being exiled forever. One recount is that King Solomon gave the Ark of the Covenant to his son, while another states that Menelik and his Israelite companions took the Ark with them; and Solomon attempted to regain the ark but was unable to, due to its supernatural properties aiding Menelik. Upon the death of his mother, or upon her abdication in his favor, Menelik was crowned King of Ethiopia. According to one Ethiopian tradition, Menelik was born at Mai-Bela near the village of Addi-Shmagle, located north west of Asmara, in Eritrea.

Dynasty
According to legend, Menelik I founded the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia that ruled Ethiopia with few interruptions for close to three thousand years. This ended 225 generations later, with the deposition of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. Historical records show that the Solomonic dynasty was restored, based on the traditional narrative, in 1262 AD, when Yekuno Amlak, who claimed descent from biblical Solomon and Sheba, overthrew the last ruler of the Zagwe dynasty, dismissing them as not of "the house of Israel" (i.e., of Solomon). and re-established the Solomonic Dynasty in 1270 AD. Acts 8:26–40 depicts a 1st century account of a eunuch of Candace, Queen of Ethiopians on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, encountering Saint Philip in Samaria.

Popular culture
Much tourist art in Ethiopia depicts the narrative about Menelik I in a series of panels, 44 scenes, eleven for each of four lines. The story depicted on them is the oral version (beginning with a backstory on Sheba and including an Ethiopian maid who also becomes pregnant by Solomon), not the medieval text version.

2004 short documentary, Menelik I, was filmed in Ethiopia. It tells the story of the son of the Queen of Sheba through tableau images and music.

Tomb
A site known as the tomb of Menelik I is located 2 Kilometres west of Axum. A German expedition in 1906 discovered walls and a room at the site. The clergy of Axum collected bones that were alleged to belong to Menelik I and placed them in the Axum Sion Cathedral.

Ark of the Covenant
According to Ethiopian tradition, the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Ethiopia by first born sons of the Israelites who accompanied Menelik on his return from Jerusalem. The Ark is believed to be held in Axum and no one is allowed to enter the shrine it is held in except for one monk who is assigned to look after it for life and is not allowed to leave the courtyard of the church. During the persecution of Gudit in the 10th century and the Ethiopian-Adal war in the 16th century the Ark was moved south to Lake Ziway and later brought back to Axum.

title: Menelik I