Leading Theologian

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Leading Theologian

Dr. Howard Thurman, appointed Dean of the Chapel at Boston University, became the first African-American in the country to serve as an administrative dean and spiritual leader at a predominantly white university. He served in this position from 1955 to 1965. A distinguished preacher and religious thinker, he shared insight into the religious experience of African-Americans with a body of books, essays, poetry, and sound recordings that crossed the boundaries of race and religion.

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

From 1832 to 1865 the Liberator was a powerful anti-slavery and 'underground' newspaper for Black citizens. Founded and published by the fiery white abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, the paper had Black reporters and columnists.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

'Finest Boxer to Wear Gloves'

Sam Langford of Boston and Cambridge had by his own count 650 boxing bouts between 1902 and 1926; 250 of his fights were officially recorded. Standing just 5 feet 7 inches, and weighing 165 pounds - the size of a middleweight - Langford fought as a heavyweight and held the so-called Negro and

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Charles Street A.M.E. Church

In 1983, Charles Street A.M.E. Church celebrated its 150th anniversary. Founded in 1833 by Boston's 19th-century Black community on Beacon Hill, it moved to its present site in upper Roxbury in 1939, the last Black church to move out of the Beacon Hill area.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Nation of Islam Leader

Minister Louis Farrakhan, raised in Roxbury and a 1950 graduate of English High School, has been the national leader of the Nation of Islam since 1977, following the death of the founder of the Nation, Elijah Muhammad. While viewed by some as controversial, Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Head of Massachusetts Commandery

In 1906 James H. Wolff, a lawyer and Civil War veteran, was elected head of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Grand Army of the Republic, a largely white organization.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Theological School President

Rev. David T. Shannon became the first African-American to head the 184-year old Andover Newton Theological School in Newton in 1991. This school is the nation's oldest Protestant graduate school of theology.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black Professor of Dentistry

Dr. Joseph L. Henry was the first African-American professor at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine with his appointment in 1974. He created the department of oral diagnosis and oral radiology which he still heads. In 1978 Dr. Henry became the first African-American to become an Associate Dean at

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First U.S. Senator since Reconstruction

In 1962 Edward W. Brooke, a Boston attorney, became the first African-American to be elected Attorney General for the Commonwealth. Two year later, in 1964, he became the first African-American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Court Child Care Center

The Roxbury District Court Child Care Center was the first court-affiliated drop-in care center in New England for families who must bring their children with them when they have court business. Roxbury District Court Judge Julian T. Houston, now a Superior Court judge, worked for four years to

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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

Microwave Associates

Microwave Associates, Inc. (now called M/A-COM) was founded in 1950 in Boston by two African-American engineers, Louis W. Roberts and Richard M. Walker, and Vess Chigas (a Greek American). In 1956 the company offered public stock and many of Boston's African-Americans invested. Microwave Associates

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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

William Monroe Trotter's Equal Rights League

In 1901 William Monroe Trotter (1873-1934) founded the Boston Equal Rights League to push for civil and human rights for Black people. The league operated nine years before the establishment of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

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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

Patrick School of Pharmacy

Dr. Thomas W. Patrick, pharmacist, founded the Patrick School of Pharmacy in Boston in 1893. Until 1936 he operated the school, where some 5,000 Bostonians, mostly first- and second-generation Italian, Irish, and Jewish immigrants, were trained to become certified pharmacists.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Early Black Reporter

Bob Teanoh was perhaps the first African-American reporter for a white newspaper in Boston, having obtained a staff position in 1890 withThe Boston Daily Globe. He was elected to the state legislature in 1894.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Anti-Slavery Treatise

'The Selling of Joseph,' a sermon by white clergyman Samuel Sewall, first published in Boston in 1700, became the first public anti-slavery treatise. Liberty, he wrote, being 'The real value unto life; none ought to part with it themselves or deprive others of it but upon mature

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Outstanding Criminal Lawyer

William H. Lewis (1869-1949), long recognized as one of Boston's outstanding criminal lawyers, was the first African-American to hold the position of Assistant United States Attorney General, appointed by President Taft in 1911.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Pioneering Teacher of Reading

Wilhelmina Crosson, one of the first African-American teachers in the Boston Public Schools (1923-1949), started her career at the Hancock School in the North End. Working in the Italian-American community with first-generation Italian children, she instituted the first remedial reading program in

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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

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

Organization for a New Equality

The Organization for a New Equality ( O.N.E.) was founded in 1985 by Rev. Charles Stith, Senior Pastor of Union United Methodist Church. O.N.E. is a local and national vehicle for mounting strategies to develop economic opportunity for 'people of color' and racial harmony in cities and on college

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

In 1983 Mel King changed Boston's political history when he became the first Black mayoral candidate in the city's history to win a preliminary election and run in the general election for control of Boston City Hall. While defeated in the runoff by Ray Flynn, he gathered 30 percent of the general

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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 Harvard College Graduate

Richard Theodore Greener, class of 1870, was the first Black to graduate from Harvard College. He became a professor of mental and moral philosophy at the University of South Carolina and U.S. Consul at Vladivostok during the Russo-Japanese War.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Black Population in 1970

In 1970, 51 percent of Boston's African-Americans had been born outside of Massachusetts and had migrated to the state, and most of the newcomers (29 percent of the entire Black population) were of southern origin.

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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

Crispus Attucks

Crispus Attucks, an ex-slave from Framingham was the first to die in the Boston Massacre (1770), which some historians mark as the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. Attucks led a small group of colonists to a British garrison on King Street in Boston. One of the British soldiers panicked

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Boston's Underground Railroad

In the decades prior to the Civil War, Blacks in Boston were prominent in developing and operating one of the principal stations of the 'Underground Railroad' that helped escaped slaves from the South find refuge in the North or in Canada. From his home at 66 Phillips Street on Beacon Hill (now

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

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