The Boston Public Library board of trustees is to be commended for naming the newly renovated Dudley Library the “Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library.”
It is a historically significant name that has meaning for those who have called Roxbury home for several generations.
A son of Roxbury, Moorfield Storey (1845-1929), a Harvard lawyer and descendant of early British settlers, became the first president of the NAACP, a post he maintained until his death.
While William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) was originally from Newburyport, he lived in Roxbury when he established the Liberator newspaper in 1831 that was the voice of the national anti-slavery movement in the U.S.
The book “Boston’s Banner Years: 1965-2015, A Saga of Black Success” lists many black achievers identified with Roxbury.
