Medical First

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Medical First

In 1854 J. V. De Grasse (1825-1868) became the first Black physician admitted to the Massachusetts Medical Association.

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

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

Black Population 1880-1920

The Boston Black population numbered 2,348 in 1865. By 1880 (after the Civil War), it had climbed to 5,873. Throughout the entire period from the Civil War to World War I, Boston had as large a proportion of African-American residents as New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland; the Black

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Juvenile Garrison Independent Society

In the 1830s and 1840s Black Bostonians were providing for the education and intellectual stimulation of their youth. The Juvenile Garrison Independent Society, mostly teenagers, provided Black history education for themselves and services for the community - sponsoring lectures, community fix-up

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

19th-Century Statesman

Julius C. Chappelle had one of the most successful careers in Boston electoral politics of the late 19th century. He was elected to the Republican State Central Committee, the Boston City Council, and the state legislature. He served in the state House of Representatives from 1883 to 1886, the

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Operation Exodus

Ellen Swepson Jackson was founder and executive director of Operation Exodus, a privately initiated inner-city busing program that began in 1965 to help Black students living near substandard schools to attend 'better' schools in other generally all-white neighborhoods in Boston.

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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

Black Literary Societies

Two important Black literary societies were established shortly after the turn of the century: The Boston Literary and Historical Society, organized in 1901; the St. Mark Musical and Literary Union in 1902.

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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

Early Political Writer

Hailed as America's first Black political writer, Maria W. Stewart, an early Boston activist, championed women's rights and Black self-improvement in a series of speeches and essays written between 1831 and 1833. She was probably the first Black American to lecture publicly in defense of

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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

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

First Attorney to Pass Massachusetts Exam

Robert Morris was the first attorney in Massachusetts to pass the Massachusetts bar examination in 1847.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Oldest NAACP Branch

The Boston Branch of the NAACP, the first official and now the oldest branch of the NAACP, developed out of the Boston Committee to Advance the Cause of the Negro, established in 1910. Gathering in 1912 at the Park Street Church, 56 Bostonians (Black and white) received the official Branch charter

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

20th-Century Novelist

Dorothy West, born in 1910 and raised in Boston, became a leading novelist, short-story writer, editor, and columnist. Her novelThe Living Is Easy (about growing up Black in Boston) was published in 1948; currently she writes a column for theVineyard Gazette on Martha's Vineyard Island.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Pioneering Playwright

James Henderson (1894-1979) was a pioneering actor and developer of the Black theater in Boston during the first half of the 20th century. As a playwright, he toured New England with his Black theater groups.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

In 1787 Prince Hall founded Boston's African Lodge Number 459, the first African Masonic Lodge in the country and the beginning of Black Masonry in the United States. The Lodge, currently located at 18 Washington Street in the Grove Hall section of Dorchester, is one of the few Masonic lodges

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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

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

Primus Hall's School

A school for Black children was begun on Beacon Hill in the home of Primus Hall in 1798.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Leading Tennis Player

Titus Sparrow was a leading tennis player in Boston and New England in the 1930s and 1940s. He was a tennis official of the old Boston Tennis Club and its offspring, the Roxbury Sportsmen. He was the winner of numerous trophies, including the New England Gardner Clase Bowl, awarded annually by the

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Charles Lenox Remond

Charles Lenox Remond (1810-1873) was perhaps the boldest agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and possibly the most eloquent of the Black abolitionists of antebellum Boston. He had a national and international reputation as an anti-slavery leader, and was appointed as an American

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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

Pharmacist Doctor Jackson

For 50 years, from 1938-1988, Clarence Noel Jackson (1911-1988), Reg. Ph., owned and operated the Douglass Square Pharmacy in lower Roxbury. 'Dr. Jackson,' as he was called, a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in 1937, provided a community institution for health care throughout

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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

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

Creating Political Opportunities

In 1986 the Black Political Task Force joined forces with the Rainbow Coalition, the Massachusetts Latino Democratic Committee, and the Asian Political Caucus to challenge the redistricting plan put forth by the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Redistricting is the process by which

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Urban League of Boston

The Urban League of Boston was established in May 1919 and has been dedicated to the economic and social development of Boston's African-American people and neighborhoods for 70 years. In the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s especially, the Boston affiliate of the National Urban League was a significant

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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 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

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