Allan Rohan Crite, painter, born

Black Nativity

'Black Nativity,' a folk-song rendering of the Christian story based on Langston Hughes's gospel song-play about the birth of Christ, has become an annual tradition in Boston since 1969. First presented in the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, it has attracted a wider audience in its performances on

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

“Eye of the Beholder” Exhibition Showcases Work of 24 Collectors

By Ana Martinez-Ortiz Often in an exhibition, there’s some sort of universal theme that ties the pieces all together. In Cedarburg Art Museum’s exhibition “Eye of the Beholder: African Americans Collecting Art” the pieces are each unique aside from the fact that they are all on loan from various

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Source: The Madison Times Weekly Newspaper

Protest Writer

Pauline Hopkins, a Black high school student in Boston, won the first prize of 'ten dollars in gold,' offered by the Congregational Publishing Society of Boston in 1895 for her essay on the 'Evils of Intemperance and Their Remedies.' She went on to become a writer for theColored American

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Melissa Mitchell On Finding Her Purpose As A Painter And Being A Master Manifestor: I Kept Praying For My Why And God Gave Me Art

"To be a Black woman with a brush and a platform, I've got to be a whole Harriet out here for the art world because it's like now that I have everybody looking at me, here's the rest of my sisters."

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Source: MadameNoire

Somalia: UN Agencies Warn Somalia's Gains At Risk From 'Triple Threat'

The political and security gains made by Somalia over recent years could be at risk of reversal if swift action is not taken by the international community to help local authorities avert a major humanitarian crisis due to the combined effect of devastating floods, desert locusts and the widespread

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Source: allAfrica.com

Top Black Businesses

In Black Enterprise magazine's listings of the top 100 Black companies and the 100 largest Black auto dealers in the United States during the late 1980s, a number of Boston area-based businesses made the lists: B.M.L. Associates (telecommunications); Grimes Oil Company (petroleum products

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First School Principal

The first African-American to be appointed as a school principal in the Boston Public Schools was Gladys Wood. Appointed in 1966 to administer the Dearborn district (composed of three elementary schools), she then moved into the Tileston district and to the Chittick School, serving for 15 years as

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Negro Business and Professional Women's Club

A vital force in Boston's business development for more than 30 years, the Boston Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs was organized in 1957 'to create and develop opportunities for African-American women in business and the professions and to protect their interests.'

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

School Desegregation in 1855

In September 1855, after a long boycott of Black-only schools led by William C. Nell and a petition to the legislature that schools in Boston be desegregated, Blacks in Boston were free to attend previously all-white schools.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Ball, Jr. Joseph T. (1804-1861) - Death

He died of tuberculosis on September 20, 1861 in Boston, Massachusetts and is buried there.

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Source: Black Past

Sep

20

1861

Henry Owens Movers

Henry Owens Movers was founded in 1927 in Cambridge, becoming one of the major moving and rigging companies in New England still in business today. Henry Owens, Sr., founded his business with a horse and buggy, peddling ice to his neighbors and carting baggage to and from Boston's piers for the

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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

Soul of a Nation opens at MFAH June 27 - DefenderNetwork.com

During a time when the nation is under racial duress, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) is preparing to display Soul of A Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power” in record time. The landmark exhibition, which explores what it meant to be an African American artist during the 1960s and

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Source: Houston Defender Network - Houston's Leading Black Community News & Information Source

Brighton High Valedictorian

In 1911 an African-American girl, F. Marion Reed, was valedictorian of her class at Brighton High School. With an overall average of 95 for her four years of high school study, she was in the top ten of academically achieving students out of 1,291 graduates from Boston high schools in 1911.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Melnea Cass

Melnea Cass (1896-1978), who fought vigorously and successfully for the improvement of services and resources for Boston's Black community for over 60 years, had a new thoroughfare named in her honor in 1981, Melnea Cass Boulevard in the lower Roxbury neighborhood of Boston.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Benjamin and Sarah Roberts Lawsuit

Benjamin Roberts sued the Boston School Committee in 1849 for denying his daughter Sarah admission to an all-white Boston school. His action rallied school integration forces in the early 1850s, leading to the first official school desegregation in Boston in 1855. At that time the Massachusetts

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Renowned Artist

In the mid-19th century Edward M. Bannister became one of the earliest Black artists in Boston to win widespread praise for his work. His crayon portraits were noted for their excellence. He later moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where he became the principal founder of the Providence Art Club.

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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

Allan Rohan Crite

Allan Rohan Crite (1910 - ) is Boston's most distinguished Black artist and art historian, noted for an eclectic range of subjects - from religious themes to neighborhood scenes. His religious artwork can be seen in the Church of St. Augustine and St. Martin on Lenox Street in lower Roxbury. His

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Weber Shandwick: Diversity and Inclusion- Empowering our People and our Business

Diversity and Inclusion is paramount at Weber Shandwick – it isn’t just a program or initiative, it’s a strategic imperative deeply integrated into the way we do

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Source: Savoy Network

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 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

Richard Earle Pioneer Club

The Richard Earle Pioneer Club served the Black railway workers in Boston during the first quarter of the century. Providing sleeping quarters, meals, and a place to relax for the Pullman porters, dining car waiters, and chefs during 'off hours,' The Pioneer Club was an important community

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Histrionic Club

The Histrionic Club, the first Black drama group in Boston, was founded in the late 1840s. Many of the plays it produced were written by William C. Nell.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Black Nurses Admitted to City Hospital

Led by two Black doctors, W.O. Taylor and William Worthy, a committee of Black Bostonians that includedGuardian editor William Monroe Trotter successfully championed the cause of two Black high school graduates seeking admission to the nurses' training program at Boston's City Hospital in

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Queer | Art Announces $10,000 Annual Grant For Black Trans Women Who Are Visual Artists - Blavity

Queer | Art, an organization that strives to uplift LGBTQ+ artists, has announced a $10,000 annual grant for Black trans women and trans femmes who are visual artists.

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Source: Blavity News

Commissioner of Community Affairs

Julian Steele, a Boston Latin School and Harvard graduate, as the director of the Robert Gould Shaw House in the 1930s, was the leader in the expansion of social, recreational, and educational programs for the youth of the South End and lower Roxbury. From 1938-49 he directed the

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Legendary Jazz Pianist

Sabby Lewis has become a legendary jazz pianist and band leader in Boston. He organized his first band in Boston in 1936. In 1942 his musical talent was recognized when he was chosen to perform a Sunday-night NBC radio broadcast. In the 1950s and 1960s he played on Broadway in New York City and at

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Fugitive slave laws

The fugitive slave laws were laws passed by the United States Congress in 1793 and 1850 to provide for the return of slaves who escaped from one state into another state or territory. The idea of the fugitive slave law was derived from the Fugitive Slave Clause which is in the United States

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Source: BlackHistory.com

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

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Allan Rohan Crite, painter, born

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