Actor, Playwright, Producer and Drama Teacher

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Actor, Playwright, Producer and Drama Teacher

For more than 40 years Vernon F. Blackman was a significant force in the theater. Beginning his stage career with the Little Theater Players, he founded the People's Theater Players, he founded the People's Theater Company of Cambridge and the Theater Company of Boston. From the 1950s until his death in 1990, Blackman was an instructor and mentor to Blacks in the theater. He appeared in the Theater Company of Boston's 1964 production of 'In the Jungle of the Cities' and in 'Something about the Blues,' a 1979 TV drama shown nationally on PBS. He became director of drama at the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts in 1968, and for the next 21 Christmas seasons he directed the School's production of 'Black Nativity.'

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Pioneer Activist Doctor

Dr. Louis T. Wright (1891-1952), a Harvard Medical School graduate in 1915 and a leading 20th century Black physician, pioneered in the struggle of adequate health care and medical facilities until his death in 1952. His first struggle was in Boston when he was denied the opportunity to attend

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black Female Dentist

Dr. Jessie G. Garnett (1897-1976) was the first Black woman dentist in Boston. A 1919 graduate of Tufts Dental School and the first Black woman to graduate from Tufts Dental, she practiced for 50 years until 1970. Dr. Garnett once recalled, 'When I first started, patients came to the office and saw

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Valiant Navy Admiral

Gerald E. Thomas of Natick and Boston rose to become Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy. His first command was in 1962 aboard the USS Impervious, an ocean minesweeper operating in the western Pacific. He also commanded the Destroyer Squandron NINE and the Cruiser-Destroyer Group FIVE. Thomas's medals

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Downtown Clerks

In the Christmas season of 1945, shoppers at Gilchrist's brought their gifts for wrapping to a young female employee who stood out among the holiday help. Cynthia Belgrave was the first Black clerk ever hired in a downtown department store in Boston. This hiring came from pressure exercised by

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Colored American Magazine

The Colored American Magazine, the first significant Black periodical to appear in Boston in the 20th century, was started in Boston in May 1900 by the Colored Cooperative Publishing Company. It was 'devoted to Literature, Science, Music, Art, Religion, Facts, Fiction, and Traditions of the Negro

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Leading Businesswoman

A leading African-American businesswoman in Boston for more than 20 years, Estella V. Crosby owned and operated a dry goods store on Tremont Street. She chaired the annual convention of the National Business League in Boston in 1955, organized the Housewives League, and was active in the League of

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Public Welfare Overseer

In 1950 Beulah H. Hester became the first Black appointed to the Boston Board of Overseers of Public Welfare.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Top Position for 'Colored Man'

Attorney E. E. Brown was appointed Assistant Health Commisioner for the city of Boston in 1907 by Mayor Fitzgerald, a Democrat. The Guardian newspaper called Brown's appointment the 'best position any colored man ever had in Boston.' The newspaper went on to say, 'The appointment of a colored man

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Black-Owned Hotels

There were three Black-owned and operated hotels in Boston in 1915: the Pitts, Carlton, and Melbourne.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Bucks of America

During the American Revolutionary War, the Bucks of America, commanded by George Middleton, a fiery Black resident of Boston, was one of two all-Black units. The Bucks of America were hailed throughout the Commonwealth for their bravery and performance at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Yancey Makes State Ballot

In 1986 Boston City Councilor Charles Yancey was the first African-American representing the Democratic Party to secure a position on a statewide ballot in his bid to become State Auditor.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black Red Sox Player

Elijah 'Pumpsie' Green was the first Black baseball player for the Boston Red Sox, playing in the infield from 1959-1962.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First City Appointment

The first appointment of an African-American to a city position in Boston appears to have been that of W. W. Bryant, who in 1885 was made deputy sealer of weights and measures.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

All-American Football Star

William H. Lewis, an All-American football star at Harvard, is credited with inventing the 'roving center' defense strategy. He went on to a distinguished legal and political career in Boston.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Former Owners of Channel 7

WNEV-TV (now WHDH-TV, Channel 7) in Boston was the first major television station in the country to have Black people as majority owners when, between 1981 and 1986, Bertram Lee, Ruth Batson, Thomas Brown, Henry Hampton, Joyce Fredkin, Melvin Miller, and Barron Martin were major stockholders.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Boston Bank of Commerce

Incorporated on June 30, 1982, with Juan M. Cofield as its leading founder and president from 1982-1983, Boston Bank of Commerce is the only fully insured Black-owned and operated bank in Boston and New England. A successor to Unity Bank and Trust, Boston's first Black-owned Bank, the Boston Bank

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

New England Slave Trade

The year 1644 was a momentous date in the history of the New England slave trade. Before that time Massachusetts merchants had occasionally brought in Black Africans from the West Indies; but in that year Boston traders imported slaves directly from Africa, when an association of businessmen sent

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

President of Boston Bar Association

In 1989 Rudolph F. Pierce became the first African-American to be elected President of the Boston Bar Association, the oldest local bar association in the nation, founded in 1761 by John Adams.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Deputy Tax Collector

Stewart E. Hoyt, who started as a clerk in the Boston tax collector's office, rose to the position of Deputy Tax Collector for the City in the 1920s, retiring in 1931.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Champion High Jumper

John Thomas of Cambridge, while an undergraduate at Boston University, was the first high jumper to clear the seven-foot height. In January 1959 at the Milrose Gardens in Madison Square Garden he set a world record of 7 feet and Â¼ inch. He went on to win a bronze medal for the high jump in the

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Inventor of Light Bulb Filament

Lewis Latimer (1848-1928), born the son of a fugitive slave ( George Latimer) in Boston, became a significant inventor with his development of an improved process for manufacturing the electric light bulb filament. He received a U.S. patent for his filament and became a member of Thomas

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First on Boston Common Coucil

John J. Smith, whose barber shop was an abolitionist rendezvous prior to the Civil War, was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1868 and 1869, and then re-elected in 1872. He was also the first Black to serve on the Boston Common Council in 1878.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Slave Introduces Smallpox Vaccination

The ravages of smallpox were lessened in the 1700s because Onesimus, a slave to Cotton Mather in Boston, introduced an African vaccination practice that had made his body immune to the smallpox virus. Dr. Zabdiel Boylston of Boston inoculated some 240 people, following Onesimus's description of

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

In June 1968 Unity Bank, the first full-service Black bank in Boston, opened its doors for business. Approximately 70 percent of the $1.2 million in bank assets was raised by subscription in the Black community.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare

Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, formerly president of Morehouse College of Medicine, was appointed by President George Bush in 1989 as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. Dr. Sullivan graduated from Boston University's School of Medicine and spent the early years of his career as a medical

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Early Civil Rights Leader

Archibald H. Grimke (1849-1930) was the second African-American to graduate from Harvard Law School (1874). While struggling to establish a law practice in Boston, he started the first Black newspaper in New England, the Hub, in 1883. The paper, a voice of protest for Blacks in New England, lasted

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Red Sox Lawyer and Manager

In January 1990 Attorney Elaine Weddington was appointed assistant general manager for the Boston Red Sox baseball team, a first in the nation for an African-American woman, but not a first for Weddington. In August 1988 she was also appointed associate counsel for the team.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Bay State Banner

The Bay State Banner, Boston's African-American newspaper founded in 1965 and published by Melvin Miller, celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1990.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Remarkable Lawyer and Dentist

In remarkable achievements in widely different fields, Hamilton S. Smith not only became the first African-American to receive a law degree from Boston University in 1879, but in 1889 he also received a doctor of dentistry from Howard University.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

World's Record Holder

Edward 'Ned' Gourdin (1897-1966), as a Harvard athlete, set a new world's record in the running broad jump - 25 feet, 3 inches - the first human to leap beyond 25 feet. A graduate of Cambridge Latin High and Harvard Law School (1924) he was crowned National Amateur Athletic Union Junior 100-yard

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Business Facts

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