Major 20th-Century Artists

BlackFacts Details

Major 20th-Century Artists

Among the leading 20th-century Black artists whose works have educated and contributed to the life of all Bostonians are Ellen Banks, John Barbour, Roger Beatty, Calvin Burnett, Dana Chandler, Robin Chandler, Allan Rohan Crite, Milton Derr, Paul Goodnight, James Guilford, Barbara Holt, Arnold Hurley, Larry Johnson, Lois Mailou Jones, Napoleon Jones-Henderson, Harriet Kennedy, J. Marcus Mitchell, James Reed, Gary Rickson, Rudy Robinson, Henry Washington, John Wilson, and Richard Yarde.

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.

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First African-American Dean at B.U.

Hubert (Hubie) Jones became the first African-American dean at Boston University when he was appointed to head the School of Social Work in 1977. Since 1980 he has served also as a distinguished social commentator on public affairs every Sunday morning on the Channel 5 TV program, 'Five on Five.'

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

National Negro Business League

The National Business League was founded in Boston in 1900 by Booker T. Washington 'to bring the colored people who are engaged in business together for consultation, and to secure information and inspiration from each other.' More than 400 business people from 34 states attended the convention in

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Robert C. Hayden, Author/Historian

Robert C. Hayden has been the leading researcher and writer of Boston African-American history for over 20 years. From 1974-1983 he wrote a weekly column entitled 'Boston's Black History' forThe Bay State Banner newspaper. His other works includeFaith, Culture and Leadership: A History of the Black

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Master Artists in Residency

The African-American Master Artists in Residency Program ( AAMARP) at Northeastern University was established in 1977 by renowned artist and professor Dana Chandler. AAMARP has been dedicated to providing its constituencies with the best aesthetic presentations from the widest spectrum of artists

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

54th Massachusetts Regiment - 2nd Picture

The 54th Massachusetts Regiment was the first Black unit organized in the North during the Civil War. Led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, member of a prominent white abolitionist family, this unit displayed heroism unsurpassed by any fighting group, North or South, most notably during the assault of

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Sportsman's Tennis Club

Since 1961 Sportsman's Tennis Club, through the vision and guidance of the club's founder, James A. Smith, has achieved local, regional and national fame by developing and promoting junior tennis programs that have elevated young Black players to noteworthy competitive levels of tennis playing in

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black Lawyer before Supreme Court

John Sweat Rock (1825-1866), a noted Boston lawyer, became in 1865 the first African-American to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the first Black person to speak before the U.S. House of Representatives.

fave

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.

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Museum of Afro-American History

The Museum of Afro-American History was established in Boston in 1964. Its leading founders were Dean Howard Thurman of Boston University and his wife Sue Bailey Thurman. The Museum was established 'to advance knowledge, through historic examination,' about the African-American presence in Boston

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Nationally Known Dancer

Stanley E. Brown (1902-1977) was a nationally known dancer and dance instructor in Boston from 1929 to 1977. Founder of the Stanley Brown Dance Studio, he trained and coached hundreds of professionals. 'Sugar Ray' Robinson took tap lessons from Brown as did Cab Calloway, Diana Ross, and Lola

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Eyes on the Prize

Eyes on the Prize - America's Civil Rights Years 1954 - 1965, a television mini-series produced by Henry Hampton, President of Blackside, Inc., a film production company in Boston, was seen by over 20 million national viewers in 1987. This story of the modern civil rights movement won several

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

20th-Century First

Lawrence Banks, a Republican, became the first African-American from Boston to serve in the Massachusetts legislature in the 20th century, when he was elected from Ward 9 in 1946. Banks also won election to the Boston City Council in 1949.

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Black Veterinarian

Dr. Henry Lewis of Chelsea was appointed to the Massachusetts Board of Veterinary Physicians in 1908.

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

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

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

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

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Noted Immigration Lawyer

Attorney John W. Schenck (1869-1962), admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1914, was appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney in Boston in 1920 and held that position until 1933. During that time he handled most of the immigration cases in the Commonwealth.

fave

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

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Master Brick Mason

When it comes to using bricks and mortar for the development and beautification of the community, the brothers Percy and John Gray have contributed their skills as master brick masons to the buildings of Roxbury and the city for more than 50 years.

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

19th-Century Guitarist

James Gloucester Demarest was a 19th-century musician who taught the guitar and violin in Boston and also composed for these instruments.

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Master Shipbuilder

John Mashow (1805-1893) was a master shipbuilder in New Bedford from 1840 to 1860. Contributing greatly to the U.S. maritime industry and to maritime architecture, he is credited with drafting and modeling some 100 ocean vessels, supervising the construction of some 60 whale and merchant

fave

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

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black Judge - Juvenile Court

In 1948 Bruce Robinson became the first Black appointed to the bench in Massachusetts. He was named Associate Justice of the Boston Juvenile Court by Governor Robert Bradford.

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Catholic Bishop

Bishop James A. Healy, born of mixed parentage on a Georgia plantation, served as a priest in Boston's Irish immigrant neighborhoods in the 1850s. He was named Chancellor of the Boston Archdiocese in 1855 and Bishop of the Portland (Maine) Diocese in 1875.

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Scene of 'Boston Riot'

In 1988 Columbus Avenue A.M.E. Zion Church celebrated its 150th anniversary. Moving to its present site on Columbus Avenue in 1903, it was the scene of the famous 'Boston Riot' in July, 1903, when Boston's militant equal rights leader William Monroe Trotter and Booker T. Washington, the

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Black Heritage Trail

The Black Heritage Trail on Beacon Hill in Boston is a walking tour which explores the history of the city's 19th-century African-American community. The tour was started in 1963 as an informal walking tour of some 10 sites by J. Marcus Mitchell, the first curator of the Museum of Negro History

fave

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

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Professional and Business Men's Club

From its founding in 1946 by Black professional and business men of Boston until its closing in 1987, the Professional and Business Men's Club, also called the P&B, was a unique community institution at 542 Massachusetts Avenue. It was 'a place where you could get know â€˜something' or

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Young Masters of Ceremonies

Maceo Harris, a 12-year-old student at the Sherman School in Roxbury, was the master of ceremonies for Boston's observance of Benjamin Franklin's birthday anniversary in 1932. The ceremony was conducted in front of Franklin's statue on the lawn at City Hall. Mayor James Curley said of young

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Pioneer Historian and Minister

George Washington William (1849-1891) was a graduate of Newton Theological Seminary (1874) and the Pastor of Boston's Twelfth Baptist Church from 1874-1876. After seven years of research he authoredA History of the Negro Race in American from 1619 to 1880: Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers and as

fave

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Literature Facts

Blackfacts BETA RELEASE 11.5.3
(Production Environment)