History of African Americans in Boston

Racial history

Further information: African-American history

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Ethnic group

African Americans in BostonTotal population

166,796[1] (2020)
Languages
Boston English, African American English, African languages, Haitian Creole
Religion
Christianity, Traditional African religion, Haitian Voodoo
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Ethnicity in Boston

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African Americans

History

|  Periods

* Timeline
* Atlantic slave trade
* Abolitionism in the United States
* Slavery in the colonial history of the US
* Revolutionary War
* Antebellum period
* Slavery and military history during the Civil War
* Reconstruction era
* Politicians
* Juneteenth
* Civil rights movement (1865–1896)
* Jim Crow era (1896–1954)
* Civil rights movement (1954–1968)
* Black power movement
* Post–civil rights era

Aspects

* Agriculture history
* Black Belt in the American South
* Business history
* Military history
* Treatment of the enslaved

Migrations

* Great Migration
* Second Great Migration
* New Great Migration

Culture

|  Lifeways

* Dance
* Family structure
* Film
* Folktales
* Music
* Musical theater
* Names
* Neighborhoods
* Newspapers
* Soul food

Schools

* Education during the slave period in the US
* Education of freed people during the Civil War
* History of African-American education, after the Civil War
* Historically black colleges and universities
* Fraternities

Academic study

* Studies
* Art
* Literature

Celebrations

* Martin Luther King Jr. Day
* Black History Month
* Juneteenth
* Kwanzaa

Economic class

* African-American businesses
* Middle class
* Upper class
* Billionaires

Symbols and ideas

* African-American beauty
* Black is beautiful
* Black pride
* African-American hair
* Good hair
* Stepping
* "Lift Every Voice and Sing"
* Self-determination

Religion

|  Institutions

* Black church

Theologies

* Black theology
* Womanist theology

Non-Christian groups

* Hoodoo
* Black Hebrew Israelites
* African-American Jews
* African-American Muslims
* Nation of Islam
* Louisiana Voodoo
* African Diaspora Religions

Politics

|  Organizations

* Congressional Black Caucus
* Joint Center
* National Black Caucus of State Legislators
* National Conference of Black Mayors

Ideologies

* Afrocentrism
* Anarchism
* Back-to-Africa movement
* Black power
* Capitalism
* Conservatism
* Garveyism
* Leftism
* Liberalism
* Nationalism
* Pan-Africanism
* Patriotism
* Populism
* Radicalism
* Socialism

Civic/economic groups

|  Organizations

* Association for the Study of African
American Life and History
* Black conductors
* NAACP
* National Black Chamber of Commerce
* National Council of Negro Women
* National Pan-Hellenic Council
* National Urban League
* TransAfrica
* UNCF

Sports

* Negro league baseball

Athletic associations and conferences

* Central (CIAA)
* HBCU (HBCUAC)
* Mid-Eastern (MEAC)
* Southern (SIAC)
* Southwestern (SWAC)

Sub-communities

|  Multiethnic

* African-American Jews
* Afro-Puerto Ricans
* Alabama Creole people
* Black Indians
* Black Seminoles
* Mascogos
* Blaxicans
* Brass Ankles
* Creoles of color
* Dominickers
* Freedmen
* Great Dismal Swamp maroons
* Louisiana Creoles
* Melungeon
* Carmel
* Redbone

Specific ancestries

* Americo-Liberians
* Creek Freedmen
* Gullah
* Merikins
* Nova Scotians
* Samaná Americans
* Sierra Leone Creole

Sexual orientation

* LGBT community

Dialects and languages

|  English dialects

* African-American English
* African-American Vernacular English
* Liberian English
* Samaná English
* Tutnese

Languages and other dialects

* Gullah
* Afro-Seminole Creole
* Negro Dutch
* Black American Sign Language

Population

|  US states

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* Black mecca
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Historic places

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Population count

* US states and territories
* US metropolitan areas
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* Places by plurality of population

Diaspora

* Africa
* Canada
* France
* Ghana
* Israel
* Liberia
* Nova Scotia
* Sierra Leone

Prejudice

|  Racism

* Black genocide
* Race and ethnicity in the US census
* Racism against Black Americans
* Reparations for slavery
* School segregation in the US
* Unarmed African Americans killed by police officers

Stereotypes and media depictions

* Blackface
* Criminal stereotypes
* Hollywood
* Magical Negro
* Minstrel show

* United States portal
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Despite being one of the most important stops on the Underground Railroad,[2] until 1950, African Americans were a small but historically important minority in Boston, where the population was majority white. Since then, Boston's demographics have changed due to factors such as immigration, white flight, and gentrification. According to census information for 2010–2014, an estimated 180,657 people in Boston (28.2% of Boston's population) are Black/African American, either alone or in combination with another race. Despite being in the minority, and despite having faced housing, educational, and other discrimination, African Americans in Boston have made significant contributions in the arts, politics, and business since colonial times.[3]

Boston has a large foreign-born black population. Many are of Haitian, Cape Verdean, Jamaican, Trinidadian, Ethiopian, Barbadian, and Somalian origin.[4]

## History

[edit]

### Early America

[edit]

Crispus Attucks

Main article: African-American history § The Revolution and early America

In 1638, a number of African Americans arrived in Boston as slaves on the ship Desiré from New Providence Island in the Bahamas. They were the first black people in Boston on record; others may have arrived earlier.[5]

The first black landowner in Boston was a man named Bostian Ken, who purchased a house and four acres in Dorchester in 1656. (Dorchester was annexed to Boston in 1870).[6] A former slave, Ken bought his own freedom, but was not necessarily a freeman with the right to vote. For humanitarian reasons he mortgaged his house and land to free another slave, making him technically the first African American to "purchase" a slave.[7] Zipporah Potter Atkins bought land in 1670, on the edge of what is now the North End.

A small community of free African Americans lived at the base of Copp's Hill from the 17th to the 19th century. Members of this community were buried in the Copp's Hill Burying Ground, where a few remaining headstones can still be seen today. The community was served by the First Baptist Church.[8] In 1720, an estimated 2,000 African Americans lived in Boston.[9]

In 1767, the 15-year-old Phillis Wheatley published her first poem, "On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin", in the Newport Mercury. It was the first poem published in the Colonies by an African American. Wheatley was a slave from Senegal who lived in the home of Susanna Wheatley on King Street.[10] Wheatley is featured, along with Abigail Adams and Lucy Stone, in the Boston Women's Memorial, a 2003 sculpture on Commonwealth Avenue.

The first casualty of the American Revolutionary War was a man of African and Wampanoag descent, Crispus Attucks, who was killed in the Boston Massacre in 1770. Historians disagree on whether Attucks was a free man or an escaped slave. Slavery was abolished in Massachusetts in 1781,[11] mostly out of gratitude for black participation in the Revolutionary War. Subsequently, a sizable community of free blacks and escaped slaves developed in Boston.

Black Bostonians who fought in the Revolutionary War include Primus Hall, Barzillai Lew, and George Middleton, among others. The Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown marks the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill, in which a number of African Americans fought, including Peter Salem, Salem Poor, and Seymour Burr.[12]

African Meeting House

### Abolitionism

[edit]

Main article: African-American history § Abolitionism

Boston was a hotbed of the abolitionist movement. In the 19th century, many African-American abolitionists lived in the West End and on the north slope of Beacon Hill, including John P. Coburn, Lewis Hayden, David Walker, and Eliza Ann Gardner (see Notable African Americans from Boston). Boston was home to several abolitionist organizations such as the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, whose lecturers included Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown, and the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, whose members included the noted author Susan Paul. Abolitionists held meetings in the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill. The Twelfth Baptist Church, led by abolitionist Rev. Leonard Grimes, was also known as "The Fugitive Slave Church."[13]

Several slave rescue riots took place in Boston.[14] In 1836, Eliza Small and Polly Ann Bates, two escaped slaves from Baltimore, were arrested in Boston and brought before Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw. The judge ordered them freed because of a problem with the arrest warrant. When the agent for the slaveholder requested a new warrant, a group of spectators rioted in the courtroom and rescued Small and Bates.[15][note 1] Controversy over the fate of George Latimer led to the passage of the 1843 Liberty Act, which prohibited the arrest of fugitive slaves in Massachusetts. Abolitionists rose to the defense of Ellen and William Craft in 1850, Shadrach Minkins in 1851, and Anthony Burns in 1854. An attempt to rescue Thomas Sims in 1852 was unsuccessful.[14]

Several white Bostonians, such as William Lloyd Garrison (founder of the Liberator and a member of the Boston Vigilance Committee), were active in the abolitionist movement. Charles Sumner, the Massachusetts senator who in 1856 was nearly beaten to death on the Senate floor by a Southerner for condemning slavery, was from Boston.

The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was one of the first official African-American units in the United States during the Civil War. Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists recruited soldiers for the 54th regiment at the African Meeting House. One member of the regiment was Sergeant William H. Carney, who won the Medal of Honor for his gallantry during the Battle of Fort Wagner. Carney's face is shown on the monument to Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th on the Boston Common.[16] The regiment trained at Camp Meigs in Readville.[17]

Boston's Black Heritage Trail stops at the African Meeting House and other sites on Beacon Hill pertinent to black history before the Civil War. The Boston Women's Heritage Trail also celebrates women from this period such as Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first African-American woman physician, the poet Phyllis Wheatley, and abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who was a frequent visitor to Boston. Harriet Tubman Park, at Columbus Avenue and Pembroke Street, features a memorial sculpture by Fern Cunningham.[18]

Further information: Abolitionism in New Bedford, Massachusetts

### Late 19th century

[edit]

After the Civil War, the West End continued to be an important center of African-American culture. It was one of the few locations in the United States at the time where African Americans had a political voice. At least one black resident from the West End sat on Boston's community council during every year between 1876 and 1895.[19]

The Boston Police Department appointed Horatio J. Homer, its first African-American officer, in 1878. Sgt. Homer spent 40 years on the police force. A plaque in his honor hangs at the Area B-2 police precinct in Roxbury.[20]

In 1895, the First National Conference of the Colored Women of America was held in Boston.[citation needed]

### Early 20th century

[edit]

Cover of The Colored American Magazine, February 1901

Main article: African-American history § The Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance

According to historian Daniel M. Scott III, "Boston played a major role in black cultural expression before, during, and after" the Harlem Renaissance.[21]

Political writers and activists such as William Monroe Trotter, William Henry Lewis, William H. Ferris, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Angelina Weld Grimké, Maria Louise Baldwin, and George Washington Forbes extended Boston's tradition of black activism into the 20th century. Boston by that time had an educated black elite--sometimes referred to as Black Brahmins, after the Boston Brahmins--who laid a social and political foundation for insistence on racial equality.[21] Ruffin, who was a suffragist as well as a civil rights leader, edited the Woman's Era, the first newspaper published by and for African-American women.[22] She also founded the Woman's Era Club, the first club for African American women in Boston.[23]

In theater, Ralf Coleman's Negro Repertory Theater earned him the unofficial title of "Dean of Boston Black Theater". In dance, Stanley E. Brown, Mildred Davenport, and Jimmy Slyde earned national acclaim. In the visual arts, Allan Crite was one of the most influential painters in Boston.[21]

In literature, the Colored American, one of the first magazines aimed at African Americans, was originally published in Boston before moving to New York in 1904; Cambridge-born Pauline Hopkins wrote for the magazine and was its editor from 1902 to 1904. William Stanley Braithwaite's annual Anthology of Magazine Verse, which ran from 1913 to 1929, influenced American taste in poetry.[21]

The Saturday Evening Quill Club was a black literary group organized by Boston Post editor and columnist Eugene Gordon in 1925. Among its members were the writers Pauline Hopkins, Dorothy West, and Florida Ruffin Ridley. The Saturday Evening Quill, the group's annual journal, published the work of African-American women, including the Boston-born poet Helene Johnson and artist Lois Mailou Jones,[24] and attracted the interest of writers in New York. Another noted Boston writer of Johnson's generation was the poet William Waring Cuney, whose 1926 poem "No Images" was later used by jazz artist Nina Simone on her 1966 album Let It All Out.[21]

In 1900, Booker T. Washington founded the National Negro Business League in Boston. Its mission was "to bring the colored people who are engaged in business together for consultation, and to secure information and inspiration from each other". In 1910, David E. Crawford opened the Eureka Co-Operative Bank in Boston; it was referred to as "the only bank in the East owned and operated by 'Colored People'."[25]

The first chartered branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in Boston in March 1911.[26][2]

In the first half of the 20th century, Boston's black community diversified considerably due to an influx of immigrants from the West Indies and Cape Verde as well as the American South and West (including Malcolm X). In the 1920s the community began expanding from the South End into Roxbury.[21] Social workers Otto P. Snowden and Muriel S. Snowden founded Freedom House in Roxbury in 1949.[27]

### Civil rights

[edit]

Melnea Cass

Main article: Civil Rights Movement

"Although popular and scholarly attention has been paid to the struggle for equality in other parts of the country during the twentieth century, Boston's civil rights history has largely been ignored", according to organizers of a symposium at the Kennedy Library in 2006.[28] Although Boston's civil rights movement is usually associated with the busing controversy of the 1970s and 1980s, Bostonians such as Melnea Cass and James Breeden were active in the civil rights movement before then.[29][30] In 1963, 8,000 people marched through Roxbury to protest "systemic segregation" in Boston's public schools.[31] In April 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. led a march from Roxbury to Boston Common to protest school segregation. That June, after the 114 day Freedom Vigil of Rev. Vernon Carter of All Saints Lutheran Church in the South End, which began two weeks after Martin Luther king's Boston march, the Massachusetts legislature passed the Racial Imbalance Act signed by Governor Volpe, which ordered the state's public schools to desegregate.[32]

On April 5, 1968, hoping to ease racial tensions following King's assassination, Mayor Kevin White asked James Brown not to cancel a scheduled concert at Boston Garden. He persuaded WGBH-TV to televise the concert so that people would stay home to watch it. The next day, nearly 5,000 people attended a rally organized by the Black United Front in White Stadium. Protesters presented a list of demands that included "the transfer of the ownership of ... [white-owned] businesses to the black community, ... every school in the black community shall have all-black staff ... [and] control of all public, private, and municipal agencies that affect the lives of the people in this community."[33]

After Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, Mel King, then the executive director of the New Urban League, wrote:

> We may voice our outrage at certain kinds of violence. We may implement some type of gun-control legislation, but until we confront ourselves, examine and readjust our priorities, make a firm commitment to change, and act on that commitment, we are deceiving ourselves and perpetuating a system which will lead to the ultimate form of violence--the destruction of society.[34]

That September, 500 African-American students walked out of school after a student was sent home from English High School for wearing a dashiki. Later that year, Mel King and the New Urban League protested at a United Way luncheon, charging that Boston's African-American community was receiving only "crumbs".[35]

### Busing

[edit]

Main article: Boston busing desegregation

The desegregation of Boston public schools (1974–1988) was a period in which the Boston Public Schools were under court control to desegregate through a system of busing students. The call for desegregation and the first years of its implementation led to a series of racial protests and riots that brought national attention, particularly from 1974 to 1976. In response to the Massachusetts legislature's enactment of the 1965 Racial Imbalance Act, which ordered the state's public schools to desegregate, W. Arthur Garrity Jr. of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts laid out a plan for compulsory busing of students between predominantly white and black areas of the city. The court control of the desegregation plan lasted for over a decade. It influenced Boston politics and contributed to demographic shifts of Boston's school-age population, leading to a decline of public-school enrollment and white flight to the suburbs. Full control of the desegregation plan was transferred to the Boston School Committee in 1988; in 2013 the busing system was replaced by one with dramatically reduced busing.[36]

### Late 20th century

[edit]

Panelists on Basic Black in 2012, discussing the presidential election (Kenneth Cooper, Cindy Rodriguez, Callie Crossley, Philip Martin, and Kim McLarin)

The National Center of Afro-American Artists (NCAAA) was founded by Elma Lewis in 1968 in Roxbury, Boston.

In 1968, WGBH-TV began airing Say Brother (later renamed Basic Black), Boston's longest running public affairs program produced by, for and about African Americans. In 1972, Sheridan Broadcasting purchased the WILD (AM) radio station, making it the only urban, contemporary music radio station in the country owned and operated by a black-owned company.[37]

Rabbi Gerald Zelermyer of Mattapan was attacked on June 27, 1969, by two black youths who came to his door, handed him a note telling him to "lead the Jewish racists out of Mattapan" and threw acid in his face. He was severely burned but not permanently disfigured. Two Mattapan synagogues were burned down by arsonists in 1970. By 1980, nearly all of the Jews who had lived on Blue Hill Avenue had relocated.[38][39]

The Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts gave its first annual performance of the Black Nativity at the school in 1970. It has been performed at various venues since then, including the Boston Opera House. Its new home is the Paramount Theatre.[40][41]

In 1972, the Museum of African American History purchased the African Meeting House, in Boston's Beacon Hill.[42]

From 1974 to 1980, the Combahee River Collective, a political organizing group largely composed of Black lesbian socialists, met in Boston and nearby suburbs.[43] The Collective is perhaps best remembered for developing the Combahee River Collective Statement,[44] a foundational text for identity politics and an important Black feminist text.[45][46]

In 1978, the Boston branch of the NAACP successfully sued the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for allowing the Boston Housing Authority to discriminate based on race.[47] Housing discrimination in Boston remained an issue; in 1989 the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston reported that residents of Boston's black neighborhoods were less likely to receive home mortgages than residents of white neighborhoods, "even after taking into account economic and nonracial characteristics that could be responsible for differences between these neighborhoods".[48]

As a gesture of protest over inadequate city services, a group of activists obtained enough signatures to put a non-binding referendum on the November 1986 ballot, proposing that the predominantly black neighborhoods of Boston secede and create a new city called Mandela. Voters in those neighborhoods rejected the proposal by a 3-to-1 margin.[49][50]

In 1989, Charles Stuart murdered his pregnant wife to collect life insurance and told Boston police she had been killed by a black gunman. The case exacerbated racial tensions in Boston for a time.[51]

Nelson Mandela and his wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela visited Boston on June 23, 1990.[52]

George Walker's Lilacs, for Voice and Orchestra was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1996 with Seiji Ozawa conducting. The piece earned Walker a Pulitzer Prize for Music, making him the first African-American composer to be awarded the prize.[53]

Many black Boston natives have moved to the suburbs or to Southern cities such as Atlanta, Birmingham, Dallas, Houston, Memphis, San Antonio and Jacksonville.[54][55]

### 21st century

[edit]

In 2009, Ayanna Pressley became the first Black woman, and first woman of color, elected to the Boston City Council, in its 140 year history.[56][57] She won a city-wide At-Large seat.[58] In 2018, she was elected to the House of Representatives, and became the first woman of color to represent Massachusetts in Congress.[59][60] In 2021, Kim Janey became the first African-American mayor of Boston, having succeeded Marty Walsh following his confirmation as the United States Secretary of Labor.[61]

## Popular culture

[edit]

When founder Joseph L. Walcott opened Wally’s Paradise in Boston's South End neighbourhood in 1947, he was the first African American nightclub owner in New England. It is recognized as one of Boston’s oldest and longest-operating jazz clubs.[62][2]"

The Embrace is a massive bronze sculpture by Hank Willis Thomas installed on Boston Common in December 2022. It celebrates Boston's civil rights legacy and commemorates the period that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived in Boston. King did his doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University in the 1950s and met his wife, Coretta Scott King, who was attending the New England Conservatory of Music, while living in the city.[2] The sculpture is situated within a circular plaza, the 1965 Freedom Plaza,[63] which honors 69 civil rights and social justice leaders active in Boston from the 1950s through the 1970s.[64]

* Donna Summer
* Blue Hill Avenue, 2001 film
* New Edition

## Demographics

[edit]

Main article: Demographics of Boston

According to census information for 2010–2014, an estimated 180,657 people in Boston (28.2% of Boston's population) are Black/African American, either alone or in combination with another race. 160,342 (25.1% of Boston's population) are Black/African American alone. 14,763 (2.3% of Boston's population) are White and Black/African American. 943 (.1% of Boston's population) are Black/African American and American Indian/Alaska Native.[65]

| Number  | % of Boston population

|
|

Black/African American  | 180,657  | 28.2%
Black/African American alone  | 160,342  | 25.1%
Black/African American and White  | 14,763  | 2.3%
Black/African American and American Indian/Alaska Native  | 943  | .1%

According to the same report, an estimated 145,112 people in Boston are Black/African American and not Hispanic.[65]

## Notable African Americans

[edit]

1600-1900

* Macon Bolling Allen (1816–1894), the first African American licensed to practice law and to hold a judicial position in the United States
* Zipporah Potter Atkins (mid-1600s), the first African American to own land in the city of Boston
* Crispus Attucks (c.1723–1770), the first casualty of the American Revolutionary War; killed in the Boston Massacre in 1770
* Leonard Black (March 8, 1820 - April 28, 1883), minister, slave memoirist
* William Wells Brown (1814–1884), escaped slave, abolitionist, playwright, historian; author of Clotel (1853), considered the first novel written by an African American
* Anthony Burns (1834–1862), fugitive slave who fled to Boston
* John Coburn (1811–1873), abolitionist, soldier, recruiter, and Underground Railroad conductor
* Ellen (1826–1891) and William Craft (1824–1900), slave memoirists, abolitionists
* Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831–1895), the first African-American woman to become a physician
* Thomas (1794–1883) and Lucy Dalton (1790–1865), abolitionists
* Hosea Easton (1798–1837), abolitionist, minister
* Eliza Ann Gardner (1831–1922), abolitionist, religious leader
* Moses Grandy (c. 1786–unknown), abolitionist, slave memoirist
* George Franklin Grant (1846–1910), the first African-American professor at Harvard; also a dentist, and inventor of the wooden golf tee
* Leonard Grimes (1815–1873), abolitionist, minister
* William Gwinn (1755–unknown), one of the first black Americans to participate in the Back-to-Africa movement
* Primus Hall (1756–1842), abolitionist, American Revolutionary War soldier
* Prince Hall (1738–1807), freemason, abolitionist
* Lewis Hayden (1811–1889), abolitionist, lecturer, businessman, and politician
* John T. Hilton (1801–1864), abolitionist and businessman
* Horatio J. Homer (ca. 1848–1923), Boston's first African-American police officer[20]
* Thomas James (1804–1891), abolitionist, minister
* Bostian Ken (1600s), in 1656, the first black landowner in (today's) Boston
* George Latimer (1819–1896), an escaped slave whose case became a major political issue in Massachusetts
* Lewis Howard Latimer (1848–1928), inventor and draftsman
* Barzillai Lew (1743–1822), Revolutionary War soldier
* Walker Lewis (1798–1856), abolitionist
* Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845–1926), the first African American to study and work as a professionally trained nurse
* J. Sella Martin (1832–1876), abolitionist, pastor, educator, and politician
* George Middleton (1735–1815), Revolutionary War veteran and community civil rights activist
* Shadrach Minkins (1814–1875), fugitive slave freed by the Boston Vigilance Committee
* Robert Morris (1823–1882), one of the first African-American attorneys in the United States
* William Cooper Nell (1816–1874), abolitionist, writer, postal clerk; the first African American to hold a federal civilian post
* Susan Paul (1809–1841), abolitionist
* Thomas Paul (1773–1831), minister
* Charles Lenox Remond (1810–1873), abolitionist
* John Stewart Rock (1825–1866), dentist, doctor, lawyer, abolitionist
* George Lewis Ruffin (1834–1886), the first African-American graduate of Harvard Law School, the first African American elected to the Boston City Council, and the first black judge in the United States
* John Brown Russwurm (1799–1851), abolitionist, teacher
* John J. Smith (1820–1906), abolitionist, Underground Railroad conductor, and politician
* Samuel Snowden (1765–1850), minister, abolitionist
* Maria W. Stewart (1803–1880), teacher, journalist, lecturer, abolitionist, and women's rights activist
* Harriet Tubman (1822–1913), abolitionist, lived for a time in Boston's South End; her house is on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail
* David Walker (1796–1830), abolitionist; author of An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World
* Edward G. Walker (1830–1901), abolitionist, lawyer, politician
* Phyllis Wheatley (c. 1753–1784), the first published African-American female poet

Early 20th century

* Agnes Jones Adams (1858–1923), one of the early "club women"
* Maria Louise Baldwin (1856–1922), educator and activist from Cambridge; co-founded several Boston organizations
* William Stanley Braithwaite (1878–1962), writer, poet, publisher, and literary critic
* Stanley E. Brown (1902–1978), nationally acclaimed dance instructor[21][66]
* Ralf Coleman (1898–1976), actor, producer, director, and founder of the Negro Repertory Theater; known as the "Dean of Boston Black Theater"[67][68]
* Allan Rohan Crite (1910–2007), visual artist
* Wilhelmina Crosson (1900–1991), pioneering educator; founder of the Aristo Club
* William Waring Cuney (1906–1976), poet
* Mildred Davenport (1900–1990), nationally acclaimed dancer, dance instructor, and founder of two dance schools, the Davenport School of Dance and the Silver Box Studio[21][69]
* William H. Ferris (1874–1941), author, minister, scholar, and activist
* George Washington Forbes (1864–1927), civil rights activist, journalist, co-founder of the Boston Guardian, and one of the first African-American librarians; served at the West End branch of the Boston Public Library for over 30 years[70][71]
* Jessie G. Garnett (1897-1976), Boston's first black woman dentist
* Richard Theodore Greener (1844–1922), the first African-American graduate of Harvard College; dean of the Howard University School of Law
* Angelina Weld Grimké (1880–1958), journalist, teacher, playwright and poet of the Harlem Renaissance; one of the first African-American women to have a play publicly performed
* Roland Hayes (1887–1977), lyric tenor and composer
* Pauline Hopkins (1859–1930), author from Cambridge; member of the Saturday Evening Quill Club, a Boston literary group; edited the Colored American, one of the first magazines aimed at African Americans[21]
* Helene Johnson (1906–1995), poet
* Lois Mailou Jones (1905–1998), painter
* Clement G. Morgan (1859-1929), Harvard-educated attorney, activist, and city official; born into slavery
* Florida Ruffin Ridley (1861–1943), civil rights activist, suffragist, teacher, writer, and editor
* Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (1842–1924), civil rights activist, founder of the Woman's Era Club (the first black women's club in Boston) and editor of the Woman's Era, the first newspaper published by and for black women
* Bessie Stringfield (1911–1993), the first African-American woman motorcyclist to ride solo across the United States; one of the few motorcycle despatch riders for the U.S. military during WWII
* William Monroe Trotter (1872–1934), journalist and civil rights activist who influenced the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
* Dorothy West (1907–1998), Harlem Renaissance writer
* Butler R. Wilson (1861-1939), attorney and civil rights activist
* Mary Evans Wilson (1866–1928), civil rights activist

Later

* Ruth Batson (1921–2003), civil rights and education activist
* Bruce Bolling (1945–2012), first black president of the Boston City Council
* Edward Brooke (1919–2015), U.S. senator, first African American elected to Senate in the 20th century
* Bobby Brown (b. 1969), R&B singer, songwriter
* Doris Bunte (b. 1933), in 1972, became the first African-American woman elected to the Massachusetts state legislature; appointed Boston Housing Authority administrator in 1984
* Melnea Cass (1896–1978), community and civil rights activist; see also Melnea Cass Boulevard
* Alan Dawson (1929–1996), jazz drummer
* Harry J. Elam, Sr. (1922–2012), the first black judge appointed to the Boston Municipal Court bench, and the court's first black chief justice[72][73]
* Louis Farrakhan (b. 1933), Nation of Islam leader, activist
* The G-Clefs, doo-wop group
* Gerald R. Gill (1948-2007), historian, Tufts University professor; twice named Massachusetts College Professor of the Year[74]
* Michael E. Haynes (b. 1927), minister, politician, civil rights activist
* Roy Haynes (b. 1925), jazz drummer and bandleader
* Cousin Stizz, rapper
* Wendell Norman Johnson (1935–2007), Boston University dean, rear admiral[75][76]
* Kim Janey (b. 1965), politician, first African-American mayor of Boston
* Mel King (b. 1928), politician, community organizer, writer, and MIT professor
* Elma Lewis (1921–2004), arts educator, founder of the National Center of Afro-American Artists
* William Henry Lewis (1868–1949), pioneer in athletics, law, and politics; the first African American to be appointed as an Assistant United States Attorney
* Lucy Miller Mitchell (1899–2002), pioneer in early childhood education
* Shabazz Napier (b. 1991), NBA player
* Wayne Selden (b. 1994) NBA player
* Benzino rapper, producer
* David Sutherland Nelson (1933–1998), first African American federal judge in Massachusetts
* Ed O.G. (b. 1970), hip-hop artist
* Porsha Olayiwola (b. 1988), poet laureate
* Patrice O'Neal (1969–2011), comedian, actor
* Paul Parks (1923–2009), the first African-American Secretary of Education for the state of Massachusetts; also a civil rights activist, and president of the Boston NAACP
* Deval Patrick (born 1956), 71st governor of Massachusetts (was educated in Boston, worked in Boston)
* M. Lee Pelton (b. 1950), president of Emerson College
* Ann Hobson Pilot (b. 1943), former principal harpist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops
* Benjamin Arthur Quarles (1904-1996), historian
* David L. Ramsay (1939–1970), Vietnam war hero, recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross; Captain David L. Ramsay Memorial Park in Roxbury is named after him, and features a memorial sculpture by Valerie Maynard[77][78][79]
* Pearl Reaves (1929–2000), R&B singer and guitar player
* Byron Rushing (b. 1942), state representative and Majority Whip
* Bill Russell (b. 1934), Celtics player - not from Boston, but important to Boston; a statue of him was installed at City Hall Plaza in 2013;[80] see also Boston Redevelopment Authority protests and Tent City
* George Russell (1923–2009), composer; MacArthur "genius" grant recipient
* Kenneth Kamal Scott (1940–2015), singer, dancer, and actor
* Big Shug, hip hop artist and actor
* Jimmy Slyde (1927–2008), dancer
* Otto P. Snowden (1914–1995) and Muriel S. Snowden (1916 – 1988), community leaders; co-directors and founders of Freedom House
* Sonny Stitt (1924–1982), jazz saxophonist
* Donna Summer (1948–2012), R&B Star, "Queen of Disco"
* Jimmy Walker (1944–2007), NBA player
* Setti Warren (b. 1970), mayor of Newton, Massachusetts; attended Boston College
* Tony Williams (1945–1997), jazz drummer
* Laval Wilson, the first African-American school superintendent in Boston; appointed in 1985[81]
* William Worthy (1921–2014), journalist
* Malcolm X (1925–1965), Nation of Islam minister and activist, founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, spent formative years in Roxbury and also did time at the Charlestown State Prison

### Alumni

[edit]

Many notable African Americans who grew up elsewhere have come to Boston to pursue higher education and career opportunities. For example, Quincy Jones and Esperanza Spalding studied music at Berklee College of Music. Martin Luther King Jr. earned his PhD in systematic theology at Boston University and Coretta Scott King attended the New England Conservatory of Music.[82] The pioneering psychiatrist Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller studied at Boston University School of Medicine. Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has graduated many notable African Americans, including W. E. B. Du Bois and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

## African-American organizations

[edit]

* National Black Women's Society
* Boston NAACP
* Men of All Colors Together (Boston)

## See also

[edit]

* History portal
* Massachusetts portal
* United States portal
* Africa portal

* History of slavery in Massachusetts
* Timeline of Boston
* Great Migration (African American)
* Cape Verdean Americans
* Demographics of Boston
* Chinese Americans in Boston
* Vietnamese Americans in Boston
* History of Korean Americans in Boston
* History of Italian Americans in Boston
* History of Irish Americans in Boston
* Cape Verdeans in Boston

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Different historians describe the rioters differently. According to Jim Vrabel (2004), it was a group of "African-American and white women". In "The 'Abolition Riot': Boston's First Slave Rescue" (1952), Leonard Levy describes them as "Men and women, both white and colored". Other sources refer to a group of "black women". According to Jack Tager, most slave rescue riots were initiated by African Americans prior to 1850, and by white abolitionists after 1850.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Boston - Place Explorer - Data Commons".
2. ^ a b c d "The five best places to see Boston's African American culture and history". BBC. February 1, 2025. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
3. ^ "Where's Black Boston?".
4. ^ "AFRICAN AMERICANS IN GREATER BOSTON" (PDF).
5. ^ Hayden, Robert C. (1992). African-Americans in Boston: More than 350 Years. Trustees of the Boston Public Library. p. 15\. ISBN 978-0-89073-083-6.
6. ^ Vrabel, Jim (2004). When in Boston: A Time Line & Almanac. Northeastern University Press. p. 23. ISBN 9781555536213.
7. ^ Walker, Juliet E. K. (2009). The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship, Volume 1. UNC Press Books. p. 48\. ISBN 9780807832417.
8. ^ Alex R. Goldfeld (2009). The North End: A Brief History of Boston's Oldest Neighborhood. Charleston, SC: History Press. OCLC 318292902.
9. ^ Vrabel (2004), p. 47
10. ^ Vrabel (2004), p. 66
11. ^ Vrabel (2004), pp. 76-77
12. ^ "African American Firsts." African American Almanac. Gale. 2008
13. ^ "African American Churches of Beacon Hill". National Park Service.
14. ^ a b Tager, Jack (2001). "Fugitive Slave Riots". Boston Riots: Three Centuries of Social Violence. UPNE. pp. 93–103. ISBN 9781555534615.
15. ^ Vrabel (2004), pp. 131-132
16. ^ Carney, William Harvey. "William Harvey Carney (1840 - 1908)". The Center for African American Genealogical Research, Inc. Archived from the original on 29 April 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
17. ^ Emilio, Luis F. (1891). "Readville Camp". History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863-1865. Boston: The Boston Book Co. pp. 19–34.
18. ^ "Step on Board / Harriet Tubman Memorial". Boston Art Commission. Archived from the original on May 2, 2013.
19. ^ O'Connor, Thomas H., The Hub: Boston Past and Present, Northeastern University Press Boston, 2001. Page 231. ISBN 1-55553-474-0
20. ^ a b Rosso, Patrick D. (January 4, 2013). "For Sergeant Horatio J. Homer, Boston's first black officer, growing tributes". The Boston Globe.
21. ^ a b c d e f g h i Scott, Daniel M. III (2004). "Harlem Renaissance in the United States: 1. Boston". In Wintz, Cary (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance: A-J. Taylor & Francis. pp. 501–504\. ISBN 9781579584573.
22. ^ "Josephine Ruffin, Activist, Philanthropist and Newspaper Publisher". African American Registry.
23. ^ Sierra, Susan J.; Jones, Adrienne Lash (1996). "Eliza Ann Gardner". In Smith, Jessie Carney (ed.). Notable Black American Women. Vol. 2\. New York: Gale Research. pp. 240. ISBN 9780810391772.
24. ^ Mitchell, Verner; Davis, Cynthia (2011). Literary Sisters: Dorothy West and Her Circle, A Biography of the Harlem Renaissance. Rutgers University Press. pp. 85, 89–90\. ISBN 9780813552132.
25. ^ Vrabel (2004), pp. 239, 258
26. ^ "Branch History". NAACP Boston Branch. 2024. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
27. ^ "Muriel Snowden, 72, Pioneer in Integration". The New York Times. October 3, 1988.
28. ^ "Remembering and Honoring the Boston Civil Rights Movement". Tufts University.
29. ^ Wolff, Jeremy. "A Timeline of Boston School Desegregation, 1961-1985 With Emphasis on 1964-1976" (PDF). Racial Equity Library.
30. ^ René, Serghino (November 9, 2006). "Breeden an important thinker in Boston's civil rights movement". Bay State Banner.
31. ^ Oyama, David I. (September 23, 1963). "8000 Marchers in Roxbury Protest Segregation in City's Public Schools". Harvard Crimson.
32. ^ Hayden (1992), p. 42
33. ^ Vrabel (2004), pp. 335-336
34. ^ Eure, Dexter D. (December 30, 1969). "Play Along Or Else". The Boston Globe. ProQuest 375349943.
35. ^ Vrabel (2004), pp. 336-337
36. ^ Seelye, Katherine (March 14, 2013). "Boston Schools Drop Last Remnant of Forced Busing". The New York Times.
37. ^ Vrabel (2004), pp. 312, 336
38. ^ Vrabel (2004), 337
39. ^ Lebovic, Matt (November 23, 2014). "What happened to the Jews of Boston's 'Jew' Hill Avenue?". The Times of Israel.
40. ^ Vrabel (2004), p. 340
41. ^ "In 44th Year, 'Black Nativity' Finds New Home In Boston's Theater District". WBUR. December 5, 2014.
42. ^ Sms (23 June 2015). "Retracing Boston's African American History | BU Today". Boston University. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
43. ^ "Duchess Harris. Interview with Barbara Smith". Archived from the original on 2008-03-15. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
44. ^ The full text of the Combahee River Collective Statement is available here.
45. ^ Hawkesworth, M. E.; Maurice Kogan. Encyclopedia of Government and Politics, 2nd edn Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-415-27623-3, p. 577.
46. ^ Sigerman, Harriet. The Columbia Documentary History of American Women Since 1941, Columbia University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-231-11698-5, p. 316.
47. ^ Vrabel (2004), pp. 350-351
48. ^ Marantz, Steve (September 1, 1989). "Study Finds Racial Pattern in Lending Inequities Cited for City's Blacks". The Boston Globe. ProQuest 294487193.
49. ^ Vrabel (2004), p. 361
50. ^ Schlacter, Barry (September 7, 1986). "Irate Blacks Pushing for Secession in Boston". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press.
51. ^ "A BOSTON TRAGEDY: THE STUART CASE - A SPECIAL CASE; Motive Remains a Mystery In Deaths That Haunt a City". The New York Times. The New York Times. January 15, 1990.
52. ^ Hayden (1991), p. 163.
53. ^ Vrabel (2004), p. 372
54. ^ "Boston Black Population". blackdemographics.com.
55. ^ O'Hare, By Peggy (August 13, 2021). "Latinos, Blacks Show Strong Growth in San Antonio as White Population Declines". San Antonio Express-News.
56. ^ "Firsts from the women of the City Council". Boston.gov. 2018-03-09. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
57. ^ "Meet Boston's First Black City Council Woman in 106 Years". Time. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
58. ^ "Black History Boston: Ayanna Pressley". Boston.gov. 2020-01-14. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
59. ^ Hess, Abigail Johnson (2018-11-06). "Meet Ayanna Pressley, who is on track to become Massachusetts' first black Congresswoman". CNBC. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
60. ^ "Ayanna Pressley Is Now Officially Massachusetts' 1st Black Woman Elected To Congress". www.wbur.org. 6 November 2018. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
61. ^ "Kim Janey sworn in as 1st Black, 1st woman mayor of Boston". ABC News. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
62. ^ "Wally's Cafe Jazz Club". Music Museum of New England. June 2, 2023. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
63. ^ "The Embrace and the 1965 Freedom Plaza by Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group". City of Boston. February 16, 2023. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
64. ^ "Embrace What's Possible". Embrace Boston. 2025. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
65. ^ a b "ACS DEMOGRAPHIC AND HOUSING ESTIMATES: 2010-2014 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates". U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 2020-02-13. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
66. ^ "Nationally Known Dancer". BlackFacts. 2025. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
67. ^ "Ralph Meshack Coleman". Boston Black History.
68. ^ "Died". Jet. 51 (11): 18. December 2, 1976.
69. ^ "Guide to the Mildred Davenport Dance Programs and Dance School Materials". Online Archive of California.
70. ^ Albright, Evan J. "A Slice of History". Amherst Magazine. Amherst College. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
71. ^ Hayden (1992), pp. 50, 116
72. ^ Marquard, Bryan (August 22, 2012). "Harry J. Elam Sr., 90, pioneering black jurist in Massachusetts". The Boston Globe.
73. ^ Hayden (1992), 12, 27, 108
74. ^ "Gerald R. Gill, twice named college professor of the year". Tufts Journal.
75. ^ Long, Tom (May 7, 2007). "Wendell Norman Johnson, BU dean, rear admiral; 72". The Boston Globe.
76. ^ Hayden (1992), p. 12
77. ^ Hayden (1992), p. 128
78. ^ "Airfoil / Captain David Ramsay Memorial". Boston Art Commission. Archived from the original on June 30, 2015.
79. ^ "The Captain David L. Ramsay Memorial". West Point.
80. ^ Forsberg, Chris (November 2013). "Bill Russell's statue unveiled". ESPN.
81. ^ Vrabel (2004), p. 360
82. ^ Most, Doug (January 22, 2019). "The Ways Boston Helped Shape the Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (GRS'55, Hon.'59)". Bostonia. Retrieved November 12, 2020.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Beshara, Christopher James (October 9, 2009). The Hidden History of Black Militant Abolitionism in Antebellum Boston (BA (Hons) in History thesis). Sydney: University of Sydney. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2101496. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
* Cromwell, Adelaide (1994). The Other Brahmins: Boston's Black Upper Class, 1750-1950. University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 9781557283016.
* Hayden, Robert C. (1992). African Americans in Boston: More Than Three Hundred Fifty Years. Boston Public Library. ISBN 9780890730836.
* Johnson, Violet M. (2006). The Other Black Bostonians: West Indians in Boston, 1900-1950. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253112385.
* Levy, Leonard W. (1952). "The 'Abolition Riot': Boston's First Slave Rescue". The New England Quarterly. 25 (1): 85–92\. doi:10.2307/363035. JSTOR 363035.
* Sichel, Kim (1994). Black Boston: Documentary Photography and the African American Experience. Boston University Art Gallery. ISBN 9781881450030.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to History of African Americans in Boston.

* Black Professional Organizations in Boston
* Blackstonian

* v
* t
* e

Boston African American community prior to the Civil War

* Boston African American National Historic Site
* Black Heritage Trail
* Slavery in the colonial United States

Prominent individuals|

* Macon Bolling Allen (lawyer, judge)
* William G. Allen (college professor)
* Crispus Attucks (killed during Boston Massacre)
* Leonard Black (minister, slave memoirist)
* John P. Coburn (abolitionist, soldier)
* Ellen and William Craft (slave memoirists, abolitionists)
* Rebecca Lee Crumpler (physician)
* Lucy Lew Dalton (abolitionist)
* Thomas Dalton (abolitionist)
* Hosea Easton (abolitionist, minister)
* Moses Grandy (abolitionist, slave memoirist)
* Leonard Grimes (abolitionist, minister)
* Primus Hall (abolitionist, Rev. War soldier)
* Prince Hall (freemason, abolitionist)
* Lewis Hayden (abolitionist, politician)
* John T. Hilton (abolitionist, author, businessman)
* Thomas James (minister)
* Barzillai Lew (Rev. War soldier)
* George Latimer (escaped slave)
* Walker Lewis (abolitionist)
* George Middleton (1735–1815) (Rev. War soldier, Freemason, activist)
* Robert Morris (lawyer, abolitionist, judge)
* William Cooper Nell (abolitionist, writer)
* Susan Paul (teacher, abolitionist, author)
* Thomas Paul (minister)
* John Swett Rock (dentist, doctor, lawyer, abolitionist)
* John Brown Russwurm (college grad., teacher)
* John J. Smith (abolitionist, politician)
* Maria W. Stewart (abolitionist, public speaker, journalist)
* Baron Stow (minister)
* Samuel Snowden (minister, abolitionist)
* Edward G. Walker (abolitionist, lawyer, politician, son of David Walker)
* David Walker (abolitionist, father of Edward G. Walker)
* Phillis Wheatley (poet, author)

Relevant topics and
associated individuals|

| Black nationalism|

* Back-to-Africa movement (See Paul Cuffe \- William Gwinn)

|

Legal cases|

* Dred Scott v. Sandford 1857 Supreme Court decision
* Freedom suits of 1781 (See Elizabeth Freeman \- Quock Walker)
* Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (See: Anthony Burns \- Shadrach Minkins \- Thomas Sims)

History of slavery|

* Charles Apthorp
* Bunch-of-Grapes
* Merchants Row

Organizations|

| Abolitionism|

* Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (interracial)
* Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (interracial)
* Massachusetts General Colored Association (abolitionism, equality)
* Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (interracial)
* Prince Hall Freemasonry

|

Education|

* Home of Primus Hall (1798–1806)
* African Meeting House (1806–1835)
* Abiel Smith School (1835-?)

Religion|

* African Meeting House
* Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church
* Twelfth Baptist Church

Other|

* Bucks of America (Mass. Rev. War soldiers)
* Prince Hall Freemasonry

Historic sites
or neighborhoods|

* Abiel Smith School
* African Meeting House and Museum
* Black Beacon Hill (Joy Street, Southack Street (now Phillips))
* Black Heritage Trail
* Boston African American National Historic Site
* Charles Street Meeting House
* John Coburn House
* Lewis and Harriet Hayden House
* George Middleton House
* William C. Nell House
* Phillips School
* John J. Smith House

Influential publications|

* Freedom's Journal
* The Liberator
* Walker's Appeal

Related|

* Copp's Hill Burying Ground
* William Lloyd Garrison
* Isaac Knapp
* Abolition Riot of 1836

* v
* t
* e

African Americans

History|

* Timeline
* Abolitionism
* African American founding fathers
* Afrocentrism
* American Civil War
* Atlantic slave trade
* Black Codes
* Black cowboys
* Black genocide
* Black Lives Matter
* Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
* Children of the plantation
* Civil Rights Acts
* 1964
* Voting Rights Act of 1965
* 1968
* Civil rights movement 1865–1896
* Civil right movement 1896–1954
* Civil rights movement 1954–1968
* Montgomery bus boycott
* Browder v. Gayle (1956)
* Sit-in movement
* Freedom Riders
* Birmingham movement
* March on Washington
* Freedom Summer
* Selma to Montgomery marches
* Chicago Freedom Movement
* Post–civil rights era
* Cornerstone Speech
* COVID-19 impact
* Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
* Free Negro
* Free people of color
* George Floyd protests
* Great Migration
* Second
* New
* Exodusters
* Inauguration of Barack Obama 2009 / Inauguration of Barack Obama 2013
* Jim Crow laws
* Lynching
* Military history
* Million Man March
* Nadir of American race relations
* The Negro Motorist Green Book
* Partus sequitur ventrem
* Plantations
* Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
* Reconstruction Amendments
* Reconstruction era
* Redlining
* Separate but equal
* Silent Parade
* Slavery
* Treatment of slaves
* Tulsa race massacre
* Underground Railroad
* Women's suffrage movement

Culture|

* Afrofuturism
* Art
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* Film
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* LGBTQ community
* Literature
* Music
* Musical theater
* Names
* Negro National Anthem
* Neighborhoods
* Newspapers
* Soul food
* Stereotypes
* Middle class
* Upper class

Notable people|

* Ralph Abernathy
* Maya Angelou
* Crispus Attucks
* James Baldwin
* James Bevel
* Julian Bond
* Amelia Boynton
* James Bradley
* Carol Moseley Braun
* Edward Brooke
* Blanche Bruce
* Ralph Bunche
* George Washington Carver
* Shirley Chisholm
* Claudette Colvin
* Frederick Douglass
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Medgar Evers
* James Farmer
* Henry Highland Garnet
* Marcus Garvey
* Fred Gray
* Prathia Hall
* Fannie Lou Hamer
* Kamala Harris
* Jimi Hendrix
* Jesse Jackson
* Ketanji Brown Jackson
* Michael Jackson
* Harriet Jacobs
* Barbara Jordan
* Coretta Scott King
* Martin Luther King Jr.
* Bernard Lafayette
* James Lawson
* Huddie Ledbetter
* John Lewis
* Joseph Lowery
* Malcolm X
* Thurgood Marshall
* Toni Morrison
* Bob Moses
* Diane Nash
* Barack Obama
* Michelle Obama
* Rosa Parks
* Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
* Colin Powell
* Gabriel Prosser
* Joseph Rainey
* A. Philip Randolph
* Hiram Revels
* Paul Robeson
* Al Sharpton
* Fred Shuttlesworth
* Clarence Thomas
* Emmett Till
* Sojourner Truth
* Harriet Tubman
* Nat Turner
* Denmark Vesey
* C. T. Vivian
* David Walker
* Booker T. Washington
* Ida B. Wells
* Roy Wilkins
* Oprah Winfrey
* Andrew Young
* Whitney Young

Education, science
and technology|

* Black studies
* Black schools
* Historically black colleges and universities
* Inventors and scientists
* Museums
* Women
* in computer science
* in medicine
* in STEM fields

Religion|

* African-American Jews
* Islam
* American Society of Muslims
* Nation of Islam
* Black church
* Azusa Street Revival
* Black Hebrew Israelites
* Black theology
* Doctrine of Father Divine

Political movements|

* Anarchism
* Back-to-Africa movement
* Black power
* Movement
* Capitalism
* Conservatism
* Leftism
* Pan-Africanism
* Populism
* Raised fist
* Self-determination
* Nationalism
* Socialism

Civic and economic
groups

* Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)
* Black Panther Party
* Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People (CEMOTAP)
* Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
* National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
* Nashville Student Movement
* National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC)
* National Council of Negro Women (NCNW)
* National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC)
* National Urban League (NUL)
* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
* Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
* Thurgood Marshall College Fund
* United Negro College Fund (UNCF)
* Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL)

Sports|

* Negro league baseball
* Baseball color line
* Black players in professional American football
* Black NFL quarterbacks
* Black players in ice hockey
* Muhammad Ali
* Arthur Ashe
* Jack Johnson
* Joe Louis
* Jesse Owens
* Jackie Robinson
* Serena Williams

Athletic associations
and conferences

* Central (CIAA)
* Mid-Eastern (MEAC)
* Southern (SIAC)
* Southwestern (SWAC)

Ethnic subdivisions|

* By African descent
* Fula
* Gullah
* Igbo
* Yoruba
* Alabama Creole
* Black Indians
* Black Seminoles
* Cherokee Freedmen
* Choctaw Freedmen
* Creek Freedmen
* Black Southerners
* Blaxicans
* Great Dismal Swamp maroons
* Louisiana Creole
* of color
* Melungeon

Demographics|

* Neighborhoods
* list
* U.S. cities with large populations
* 2000 majorities
* 2010 majorities
* Metropolitan areas
* States and territories

Languages|

* Afro-Seminole Creole
* American Sign
* Black American Sign
* English
* American English
* African-American English
* African-American Vernacular English
* social context
* Gullah
* Louisiana Creole

By state/city|

* Alabama
* Arkansas
* California
* Los Angeles
* San Francisco
* Florida
* Jacksonville
* Tallahassee
* Georgia
* Atlanta
* Hawaii
* Illinois
* Chicago
* Indiana
* Iowa
* Davenport
* Kansas
* Kentucky
* Lexington
* Louisiana
* Maryland
* Baltimore
* Massachusetts
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* Michigan
* Detroit
* Mississippi
* Nebraska
* Omaha
* New Jersey
* New York
* New York City
* North Carolina
* Ohio
* Cleveland
* Oklahoma
* Oregon
* Pennsylvania
* Philadelphia
* Puerto Rico
* South Carolina
* South Dakota
* Tennessee
* Texas
* Austin
* Dallas–Fort Worth
* Houston
* San Antonio
* Utah
* Virginia
* West Virginia

Diaspora|

* Africa
* Gambia
* Ghana
* Liberia
* Sierra Leone
* America
* Canada
* Dominican Republic
* Haiti
* Mexico
* Trinidad and Tobago
* Israel
* Europe
* France

Lists|

* African Americans
* Activists
* Actors
* Astronauts
* Billionaires
* Journalists
* Jurists
* Mathematicians
* Republicans
* Singers
* Sportspeople
* Spingarn Medal winners
* US cabinet members
* US representatives
* US senators
* Visual artists
* Writers
* African-American firsts
* Mayors
* Sports firsts
* US state firsts
* Historic places
* Index of related articles
* Landmark African-American legislation
* Lynching victims
* Monuments
* Neighborhoods
* Topics related to the African diaspora

* Category
* United States portal

* v
* t
* e

Boston

Topics|

* Accent
* Annual events
* Architecture
* Arts
* Bibliography
* Culture
* Demographics
* Diplomatic missions
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* Geography
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* Timeline
* Media
* Nicknames
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* Sister cities
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Attractions|

* Boston Common
* Boston Convention and Exhibition Center
* Irish Famine Memorial
* Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum
* Bunker Hill Monument
* Dorchester Heights Monument
* Faneuil Hall
* Fenway Park
* Franklin Park Zoo
* Freedom Trail
* Hynes Convention Center
* Institute of Contemporary Art
* Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
* John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
* Massachusetts State House
* Museum of Fine Arts
* Appeal to the Great Spirit
* Museum of Science
* New England Aquarium
* Old North Church
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* Museum

Business
districts|

* Back Bay
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* List of companies in Boston

Government|

* City charter
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* Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
* FinComm
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* Housing (BHA)
* Mayor
* Planning & Development Agency (BPDA)
* Police

Neighborhoods|

* Allston–Brighton
* Allston
* Brighton
* Back Bay
* Bay Village
* Beacon Hill
* Downtown Boston
* Financial District
* Government Center
* Charlestown
* Chestnut Hill
* Chinatown
* Dorchester
* Columbia Point
* Upham's Corner
* East Boston
* Fenway–Kenmore
* Harbor Islands
* Hyde Park
* Readville
* Jamaica Plain
* Forest Hills
* Leather District
* Mattapan
* Mission Hill
* Longwood
* North End
* Roslindale
* Roxbury
* Fort Hill
* South Boston
* Fort Point
* Seaport
* South End
* West End
* West Roxbury

Sports|

* Boston Bruins
* Boston Celtics
* Boston Marathon
* Boston Red Sox
* New England Free Jacks
* New England Patriots
* New England Revolution

* Suffolk County
* Greater Boston
* Massachusetts

* v
* t
* e

Cape Verdean diaspora

Americas|

* Argentina
* Brazil
* Cuba
* United States

Europe|

* France
* Italy
* Luxembourg
* Netherlands
* Portugal
* Spain

Africa|

* Angola
* Guinea-Bissau
* São Tomé and Príncipe
* Senegal

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