Martha's Vineyard

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Martha's Vineyard

For more than 100 years the island of Martha's Vineyard (seven miles off the southeast coast of Massachusetts) has been an important summertime haven for Black Bostonians. In the late 1800s Blacks first came to the island to work for whites and some earned enough money to gain small summer vacation homes for themselves. Shearer Cottage was opened in Oak Bluffs at the turn of the century - the island's first establishment that allowed Blacks to rent. Since the 1950s the island has attracted Blacks each summer from the entire East Coast and Washington, D.C. Several generations of families, both famous and ordinary, as summer vacationers and year-round residents have turned the once-poor village of Oak Bluffs into a Black mecca for educational, cultural, civic and social tradition for Blacks of all backgrounds. The Martha's Vineyard NAACP, The Cottagers (a Black women's civic and charitable group), and the annual Oak Bluffs Labor Day weekend tennis tournament has become institutions in this important colony for Black Bostonians.

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Female Journalist

Lillian Lewis was the first African-American woman journalist in Boston. In the 1880s, she wrote for The Advocate, a Black community newspaper. She then went toThe Boston Herald, writing under the name of Bert Islew, scrambling the letters of her last name to disguise the fact that she was

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Distinguished Black Judge

Harry J. Elam became the first Black to serve as a Justice in the more than 300-year history of the Boston Municipal Court when he was appointed in 1971 as an Associate Justice. In 1978 he was the unanimous choice of the full bench of the Supreme Judicial Court to serve a five-year term as Chief

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Wayne A. Budd, U.S. Attorney

Wayne A. Budd was nominated for U.S. Attorney by President George Bush in March 1989 and confirmed for the position by the U.S. Senate in September 1989. A native of Springfield, Massachusetts, he was the first African-American president of the Massachusetts Bar Association (1979-80) and headed New

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black Church

In December 1806, Rev. Thomas Paul (who had been and 'exhorter' of scripture passages since age sixteen) formally organized and became the first minister of the first Black church in Boston at the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill.

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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

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

Greatest Cyclist

Marshall W. 'Major' Taylor of Worcester, Massachusetts, was the greatest cyclist in the country in the 1890s and early 1900s. He was World Professional Bicycle Champion between 1908 and 1910.

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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

First Federal Judge

David S. Nelson became the first Black federal judge in Massachusetts in 1979.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

'Mother of the Year'

In 1952 Madeline Kountze Dugger Kelly of Medford became the first Black woman to be named Massachusetts Mother of the Year.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Early Entrepreneur

By 1855 J. H. Lewis, one of the best known clothiers of the period, developed a thriving business making fashionable 'bell trouser' in a large shop on Washington Street in Boston's downtown business district.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

William E. B. DuBois

William E. B. DuBois (1868-1963), born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was the first African-American to receive the Ph.D. degree from Harvard (1895). His thesis was on the African Slave Trade. DuBois was influenced by Boston's fiery and 'radical' civil rights leader William Monroe Trotter in

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black Woman in Legislature

Doris Bunte was the first African-American woman to serve in the Massachusetts legislature. Elected in 1972, she served as state representative until 1985.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

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

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

African Meeting House

In 1806 free Blacks in Boston, led by Cato Gardner, raised $7,700 to enable Black craftsmen and laborers to build the African Meeting House. The Meeting House served as an anchor for the Black settlement on Beacon Hill throughout the 1800s. Until 1898 the Meeting House served as the home of the

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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

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

55th Massachusetts Regiment

The 55th Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Colonel Hallowell of Boston acquitted itself valiantly during many Civil War battles, particularly in the battle of Honey Hill in South Carolina, where its determined resistance to advancing southern forces saved the lives of numerous Federal troops. In

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Ward 9 Politicians

From Boston's 'old' Ward 9 in the Beacon Hill area, Boston's Black citizens were able to elect 20 Black persons to public office - to the city council, the state legislature, and school committee - during the second half of the 19th century.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Oldest Suburban Churches

Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, founded in 1874, and St. John's Baptist Church in Woburn, founded in 1886, are the oldest Black churches in suburban Boston.

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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

Superstar Singer

Dorchester's own Donna Summer revolutionized the music industry's disco craze with the release of the 'mega-hit,' 'Love to Love You, Baby,' in 1977.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

A group of Black women led by Wilhelmina Crosson started the Aristo Club in 1924 to teach African-American history in the Boston schools and Black community and to boost educational and cultural opportunities for Boston's Black youth. In 1926 the Club sponsored the first official Negro History Week

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Early Boston Latin Graduates

Parker Bailey (Class of 1877) and Clement Morgan (Class of 1886) were the first Black graduates of the Boston Latin School. Both went on to Harvard College. Bailey pursued a lifetime of teaching at the M Street High School in Washington, D.C., Morgan graduated from Harvard Law School and served as

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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

Black Population 1708-1752

Throughout the colonial era Boston contained the largest number of Blacks in Massachusetts. The flourishing slave trade and increased birthrate expanded the Black population from 400 in 1708 to 1,374 in 1742. In 1708 there were 33 free Blacks in Boston. In 1742 one-third of all Blacks in

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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

Stull and Lee, Inc.

The architectural and planning firm of Stull and Lee, Inc., established by Donald L. Stull in 1966, has made a profound impact on the physical environment and landscape of Boston. With co-partner David Less and a staff of 40 design professionals - architects, planners, and urban designers - Stull

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Parting Ways Settlement

Four Black men - Cato Howe, Plato Turner, Quamany Quash, and Prince Goodwin - founded a small community ( Parting Ways) in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1790. While they had only Anglo-American materials in their environment, they brought their West African culture to the community. All had been

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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

Business Facts

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