Three Firsts for Black Physician

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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 University School of Medicine, he was the first to head a clinical department at that institution. In October 1989 he was elected President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, another first for an African-American.

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Sergeant William E. Carter (1858-1918), for whom the Carter Playground in Boston's South End is named, served in the Spanish-American War, the Massachusetts National Guard from 1899 to 1917, and in World War I, where he was killed in action in October 1918.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Gretchen Jackson was the first African-American woman to have a sponsored and sustained daytime radio program in Boston from 1953 to 1961. As a disc jockey and talk-show interviewer, she was heard first on WBOS and later on WBMS.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Pioneering Black Historian

William C. Nell of Boston, an early writer-reporter for the Liberator, was also a pioneering Black historian, havingwritten Services of the Colored Americans in the Wars 1776 and 1812 (1852) andThe Colored Patriots of the American Revolution with Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons to

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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 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

Edward L. Cooper, Sr.

In 1933 Edward L. Cooper, Sr., was the first African-American to be hired to manage a major food chain in Boston, the First National Store on Shawmut Avenue. From 1942-48 he was Deputy Secretary of the Urban League and served as Executive Secretary from 1948-54. From 1954-62 he served as the first

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Major Foundation Director

Anna Faith Jones became the first African-American woman to head a major American foundation when she was appointed director of The Boston Foundation in 1985. Since her appointment The Boston Foundation has recommitted itself to aid for the disadvantaged.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Distinguished Player/Coach of Boston Celtics

K.C. Jones was a major figure in Boston's professional basketball history as both a player and a coach. As a guard who made defensive play his hallmark with the Boston Celtics from 1958 to 1967, he had a career total of 2,904 assists and averaged 7.4 points per game. During his tenure as coach of

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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

Black Nurse in Civil War

Susie King Taylor (1848-19?), who distinguished herself as a nurse with the Union forces during the Civil War, moved to Boston in 1874 to work as a laundress. In 1886 she helped organize Corps 67 of the Boston Branch of the Women's Relief Corps, the auxiliary to the Grand Army of the

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

WILD Radio has been on the air since 1953 and in 1972 became the only urban contemporary radio station owned and operated by African-Americans, the Sheridan Broadcasting Company. In 1980, African-American media entrepreneur Kendall Nash purchased the station from Sheridan and has been its owner and

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Action for Boston Community Development, Inc.

Since 1962, Action for Boston Community Development, Inc. ( ABCD) has fostered community development in the city. For over 20 years Robert M. Coard has served as director, one of the longest continuous tenures for a community agency leader in the city of Boston. On the human side of urban

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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

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

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

Boston Guardian

The Boston Guardian newspaper, a major 20th-century civil rights publication, was founded in Boston in 1901 by William Monroe Trotter, who published the newspaper until his death in 1934. For the next 23 years (1934 - 1957), Trotter's sister, Maude Trotter Steward, and her husband, Dr. Charles

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Rev. Michael E. Haynes

Rev. Michael E. Haynes, installed as Senior Pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church on October 24, 1965, on the 125th anniversary of the historic church, has served in that capacity for 25 years. In addition to his ministry, he served 17 years on the state Parole Board and in the 1970s, as a state

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

League of Women for Community Service

The League of Women for Community Service was founded in 1918 as a 'comfort home' for World War I Black soldiers in Boston. Still operating today at 558 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, this Black women's group has consistently provided charitable, cultural, and educational services. For more than

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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

United Daughters of Zion

The United Daughters of Zion, organized November 6, 1845, was the first women's beneficial group - Black or white - in Boston.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Early African-American Police Officers

The first two African-Americans to serve as police officers in the Boston Police Department were Charles Montier and Joshua McClain, who were appointed on October 15, 1919. Their appointments were the result of vacancies during the Boston Police strike of 1919. Following these two officers, 33

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Congressional Medal of Honor Winner

Sergeant William Carney of New Bedford, a member of the famed 54th Massachusetts Regiment during the Civil War, was the first African-American awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery at the battle of Fort Wagner in July 1863. The U.S. flag he saved during the battle still hangs in the

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black Psychiatrist

Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller (1872-1953), acknowledged as the first Black to practice psychiatry in America, graduated from Boston University's Medical School in 1897 and practiced psychiatry in Boston and Framingham until 1937.

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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

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

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

Prime Time First

In 1982, Liz Walker became the first African-American in Boston's TV history to anchor a prime time weekly newscast. She co-hosts the 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. newscasts on WBZ-TV (Channel 4).

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black Episcopal Priest

In 1894, at the Church of St. Augustine, Oscar Lieber Mitchell was the first African-American ordained into the priesthood of the Episcopal Church in Boston.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Renowned Chemist

Dr. Henry A. Hill (1915-1979) was a distinguished chemist locally and nationally from 1942 until 1979. He was the first African-American to become Chairman of the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society and later became President of the American Chemical Society. In 1961 he

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

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