Black Educator's Alliance of Massachusetts

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Black Educator's Alliance of Massachusetts

The Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts ( BEAM), originally called the Massachusetts Negro Educators Association, was founded in 1965. Led by the late Rollins Griffith, and including John D. O'Bryant, Gerry Hill, Barbara Jackson, and Jean McGuire, it was the first professional association of Black educators in Massachusetts. Now 25 years old, BEAM continues to work on educational issue and practices, sponsor workshops, collaborate with community agencies, and raise money for Black student college scholarships.

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black Celtics Star

Chuck Cooper was the first Black player on the Boston Celtics basketball team, appearing with them in the 1940s.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Boston Red Sox Scout

Ralph 'Stodie' Ward, formerly of Canmbridge and a star third baseman for the old Boston Tigers, volunteered in the 1950s to work and scout for the Boston Red Sox to help them find Black players.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Distinguished Female Dentist

Dr. Mary Crutchfield Wright was the only woman to pass the Massachusetts Civil Service examination for dentists in state institutions in 1932.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Bob the Chef's Restaurant

Bob the Chef's Restaurant has been a popular landmark soul food eating place in Boston for 30 years. Established by Bob 'the Chef' Morgan on Columbus Avenue where it stands today, this famous eating place is known for its ham hocks, fried chicken, barbecued spareribs, cornbread, and sweet potato

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Master Shipbuilder

John Mashow (1805-1893) was a master shipbuilder in New Bedford from 1840 to 1860. Contributing greatly to the U.S. maritime industry and to maritime architecture, he is credited with drafting and modeling some 100 ocean vessels, supervising the construction of some 60 whale and merchant

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Harvard Law Review President

With his election in 1990, Barack H. Obama became the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review in its 103-year history. The Review is managed and edited by 78 student editors selected from Harvard's 1,600 law students. In its first 85 years, The Review has had three Black editors: Charles

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Early Black Newspapers

The Afro-American Pressand Its Editors, the Boston Co-Operator, The Boston Leader, The Advocate, the Courant, and The Boston Observer were early Black newspapers in Boston during the 1880s and 1890s.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Media and Political Strategist

In 1986 the Boston Globe called media and political strategist Joyce Ferriabough, the only woman to break into the campaign managers' circle when she guided Charles Yancey's historic run for State Auditor. Regularly quoted in the news media for her views on political trends, especially as they

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Dr. John B. Hall, Jr.

Dr. John B. Hall, Jr., became the first Black doctor accepted as an intern at Boston City Hospital in 1931.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Elma Lewis School

The Elma Lewis School was established in 1950 to give expert training in the arts to children, youth, and adults. Its students have performed on Broadway and in symphony orchestras. During its 40 years of existence, the School has been producing professional artists and changing the quality of life

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Three Blacks in 1747 Militia

Among 101 members recruited into Captain Thomas Cheyney's Massachusetts militia company for an expedition into Canada in 1747 were three Blacks, listed as Will, Cuffee, and Samuel. (During slavery, slaves and even ex-slaves sometimes did not have surnames, or were not referred to by whites by their

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Church in Faneuil Hall

While Black people in Boston attended white churches after the American Revolution, increasing incidents of racial discrimination moved them to request the use of Fanueil Hall for religious meetings. Permission was granted in 1789 and the non-denominational prayer services led to the establishment

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

T. J. Anderson, who served as Chairman of the Department of Music and is currently the Austin Fletcher Professor of Music at Tufts University, is a leading 20th-century composer. He is recognized for his orchestration of Scott Joplin's opera,Treemonisha, which premiered in Atlanta in 1972. He has

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Slavery Abolished in Massachusetts

The year 1773 saw increasing agitation among Blacks in Boston and Massachusetts for an end to slavery. On January 6, then in April, and again in May, they sent petitions first to royal General Thomas Gage and next to the Massachusetts legislature, denouncing slavery as destructive of natural rights

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Voting Rights for Blacks

Prominent businessman Paul Cuffe used his influence to petition the Massachusetts legislature for voting rights for Blacks and American Indians, which were later granted through court action in 1783.

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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

First Black on Board of Education

Judge Richard Banks was the first African-American to serve on the State Board of Education in Massachusetts from 1966 to 1973.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Bay State Medical Association

African-American doctors, dentists, and pharmacists organized the Bay State Medical Association in 1930 to further their professional development and to provide charitable services to their community. The membership included more than 50 medical practitioners and was in existence until 1942.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Printing Business Pioneer

Established in 1952, Lester Benn's printing business has served the needs of the Black community for nearly 40 years. Enamored of the art of the printing trade, Lester Benn struggled throughout the 1940s to become and independent printer, acquiring the 'bits and pieces' of used machinery and doing

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Oldest Funeral Home

The J. B. Johnson Funeral Home, established in 1932, and the Davis Funeral Home, established in 1935 - both still in business - are two of the oldest continuously performing establishments providing services to Black families in Boston.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Africans in Boston Before 1638?

In 1638, eight years after the original settlement of Boston, a ship named Desire arrived in Boston with the first American slaves. Built in Marblehead, the merchant vessel brought its cargo of cotton, tobacco, and slaves from Providence Island in the Bahamas. There is reason to believe that Black

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

High Hurdles Champ

Eddie Dugger of Medford was National Collegiate Athletic Association high hurdles champion in 1940.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Slavery Law in Massachusetts

Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth were the first colonies to authorize slavery through legislation as part of the1641 Body of Liberties, a mere three years after the first Blacks arrived in Boston.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Black Neighborhoods 1920-1960

For the first half of the 20th century the entire South End and lower Roxbury community became the traditional and historic Black section of Boston. Until 1950 most Blacks resided in narrow geographic strip bounded by Columbus Avenue and Washington Street and Dartmouth Street and what is now New

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First on Parole Board

In the 1930s Matthew Bullock became the first Black appointed to the Massachusetts Parole Board.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black State Senator

In 1975 Bill Owens became the first African-American elected to the Massachusetts Senate, representing the Second Suffolk District. He served from 1976 to 1982. He was elected to the same seat in 1988 and remains the only African-American in the State Senate. He and Shirley Owens-Hicks also have

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Pauline Hopkins, a Black high school student in Boston, won the first prize of 'ten dollars in gold,' offered by the Congregational Publishing Society of Boston in 1895 for her essay on the 'Evils of Intemperance and Their Remedies.' She went on to become a writer for theColored American

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

'Black Nativity,' a folk-song rendering of the Christian story based on Langston Hughes's gospel song-play about the birth of Christ, has become an annual tradition in Boston since 1969. First presented in the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, it has attracted a wider audience in its performances on

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Leads Rally - Part 2

In April 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a graduate of Boston University School of Theology, led a march from Roxbury to a rally on Boston Common to protest the evils of school segregation in Boston. Dr. King spoke at the State House where he appealed to the Massachusetts legislature to end

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Poro School and Beauty Shoppe

From 1927 to 1942 a branch of the Poro School and Beauty Shoppe on Massachusetts Avenue, established and managed by E. Alice Taylor, was one of the Black-owned firms in New England. The school had an annual enrollment of 150 students, and the Beauty Shoppe had a staff of 15 professional

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Cuisine Facts

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