First Nurses at City Hospital

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First Nurses at City Hospital

In 1929 two African-American women, Frances Harris and Letitia Campfield, became the first Blacks to be admitted to the School of Nursing at Boston City Hospital.

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

Racist Song Removed

In 1915 the Boston Branch NAACP won a victory when it persuaded the Boston School Committee to withdraw from the schools the bookForty Best Songs. The local NAACP objected to the words 'darky', 'nigger,' and 'massa' in the songs, and said in its petition to the committee that 'our [Black] children

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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

Refused to Fight Against the U.S.

Richard Seavers, a Black Boston seaman who entered the British navy prior to the outbreak of the War of 1812, refused to fight against the United States and was therefore sentenced to England's Dartmoor Prison.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Newspaper Professional

Dexter D. Eure, Sr., completed 25 years of service atThe Boston Globe in 1989. He had started as an assistant to the manager of circulation in 1963 and five years later became an assistant to the editor for urban affairs. For two years he was the only Black American in Boston with a weekly

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Ex-Slave Founded Church

In 1871 ex-slaves from Virginia, led by Rev. Peter Randolph, founded Ebenezer Baptist Church, which celebrated 100 years of service in Boston in 1981.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Harvard Phi Beta Kappa

In 1895 Boston's William Monroe Trotter became the first Black to receive a Phi Beta Kappa key from Harvard University.

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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

Three Firsts for Black Physician

Dr. Kenneth C. Edelin was the first African-American physician to direct a major clinical department at Boston City Hospital when he was named Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1978, a position he held until 1989. Also, as Chairman and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Newspaper/Radio/TV Pioneer

In 1954 George Forsyth became the first African-American reporter to be hired by theBoston Traveler, the afternoon paper owned by theBoston Herald. Beginning as a street reporter, he became a feature writer and drama and entertainment critic. In 1968 he joined the staff of WHDH-TV as an on-air

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Plymouth Hospital - 1st Picture

Plymouth Hospital and Nurses' Training School, founded and operated by Dr. Cornelius Garland, a Black doctor, from 1908 to 1928, contributed to the health care needs of Blacks and to Black community development during the first quarter of the 1900s. The hospital building still stands on East

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Licensed Attorney

Macon B. Allen, who was the first licensed African-American attorney in the United States (he passed the bar exam in Maine in 1844), was the first to practice law in Boston, having been admitted to the Suffolk County, Massachusetts bar in May 1845. He became a Justice of the Peace in 1848 and

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

While The Liberator newspaper (1831-1869), founded by the militant white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, was an anti-slavery organ, it was also a journal for Black Americans throughout Boston and the East. The paper provided a network with its listing of death notices and social

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Boston Common 'Out of Bounds'

In 1742, when whites feared uprisings against oppression from the heavy concentration of slaves in Boston, the Boston Common was 'out of bounds' for Blacks and American Indians. The Black community of the city fought this restriction, but it was not until July 4, 1836 that they were allowed to use

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Benjamin and Sarah Roberts Lawsuit

Benjamin Roberts sued the Boston School Committee in 1849 for denying his daughter Sarah admission to an all-white Boston school. His action rallied school integration forces in the early 1850s, leading to the first official school desegregation in Boston in 1855. At that time the Massachusetts

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

In 1967 Thomas Atkins became the first Black Bostonian to win a city-wide election to the Boston City Council. He served two two-year terms before losing a campaign for mayor in 1971.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Two All-Black Fighting Units

There were two all-Black units, the Massasoit Guards and the Liberty Guards in Boston in the 1850s, but they were not attached to the militia of the State because there was opposition 'to there being any Colored men belonging to the State Militia.' Many of these men eventually joined the

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

NAACP President for 20 Years

Butler Wilson presided over the Boston Branch of the NAACP from 1916 to 1936, the longest presidential tenure in its history.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

George W. Forbes, Librarian

George W. Forbes (1864-1927) served as reference librarian from 1896 to 1927 in the West End Branch of the Boston Public Library, the city's busiest branch at the time. While the West End Beacon Hill neighborhood was a predominantly Black neighborhood during the late 1890's, a Jewish population

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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

First Black Lawyer before Supreme Court

John Sweat Rock (1825-1866), a noted Boston lawyer, became in 1865 the first African-American to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the first Black person to speak before the U.S. House of Representatives.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Legendary Celtic

Bill Russell was both player and coach of the legendary Boston Celtics basketball team for three season, from 1966 through 1969. In two of these seasons (1967-68 and 1968-69) he led the Celtics to the National Basketball Association national championship. As a Celtic from 1956 to 1969, he averaged

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Medical Breakthrough

Dr. William A. Hinton (1883-1959) directed the Wasserman Laboratory of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at Harvard Medical School from 1915 to 1949 and developed the famous Hinton test for syphilis, which was used to diagnose this venereal disease for over 40 years.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

TV Executive First

When Donna Latson Gittens was named vice president of community programming for WCVB-TV in 1983, she became the first African-American in the history of local television to assume this executive position and one of a relatively few in the nation.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black Judge - Juvenile Court

In 1948 Bruce Robinson became the first Black appointed to the bench in Massachusetts. He was named Associate Justice of the Boston Juvenile Court by Governor Robert Bradford.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Founder of Equal Rights Newspaper

J. Gordon Street was a journalist for three of Boston's white newspapers in the 1880s: theBoston Beacon, theBoston Evening Record, andThe Boston Herald. Critical of the white American press' neglect of discrimination faced by Blacks in the late 19th century, he established a Black newspaper, The

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Beacon Hill Barbershops

In 19th-century Black Boston, centered on the north slope of Beacon Hill, the local barbershop was an important forum for the discussion of political ideas, the exchange of community information, and the posting of job openings. Peter Howard's shop and John J. Smith's barbershop, both at the foot

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black Episcopal Bishop

The Rev. John M. Burgess of Boston became the first African-American diocesan Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States in 1968.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Housing Discrimination Victories

In 1989 the Boston branch of the NAACP won two major lawsuits for housing discrimination . Both cases were unique because they were the 'first of their kind' in the country to award individuals monetary compensation, according to Attorney Dianne Wilkerson, the NAACP Housing Committee

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black Trained Nurse

Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845-1926), acknowledged to be the first Black trained nurse in America, graduated from the New England Hospital for Women and Children, now the Dimock Community Health Center, in 1879. While she was one of the few early Black members of The American Nurses Association, she

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

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