Inventor of Diving Suit

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Inventor of Diving Suit

In 1919 Charles H. Jackson, a mechanic in Boston, invented a diving suit used to set a new world's record in 1920 for deep sea diving. John F. Turner, an internationally know diver, reached a depth of 360 feet while diving with Jackson's suit.

Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Bay State Banner

The Bay State Banner, Boston's African-American newspaper founded in 1965 and published by Melvin Miller, celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1990.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Black Population in 1970

In 1970, 51 percent of Boston's African-Americans had been born outside of Massachusetts and had migrated to the state, and most of the newcomers (29 percent of the entire Black population) were of southern origin.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Firefighters Association

The Vulcans, Boston's African-American firefighters' association, was formed in 1972. At that time there had been only 17 Black and Hispanic firemen in the history of the city's fire department. When the Vulcans filed a court suit against the city of Boston for discrimination in hiring

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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

School Desegregation Suit

In 1972 a suit was filed by the Boston Branch NAACP against the Boston School Committee for maintaining a segregated school district and low quality education for its mostly Black student population. When Federal Court Judge W. Arthur Garrity, Jr., ordered a school desegregation plan in Boston in

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black Pharmacist

Robert H. Carter of New Bedford (and great-grandfather of author/historian Robert C. Hayden) was the first Black to practice pharmacy in Massachusetts, receiving his certification from the Commonwealth in 1886. He owned two drugstores in Boston between 1895 and 1905.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Inventor of Bread Crumb Machine

Joseph Lee of Boston received a U.S. patent in 1895 for a machine that made bread crumbs for the food industry. Several years later he received a second patent for the first machine to make bread dough.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

African-Americans in 1790

There were 766 African-Americans (4 percent of the population) counted in Boston in the first United State Census in 1790.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

NAACP President for 20 Years

Butler Wilson presided over the Boston Branch of the NAACP from 1916 to 1936, the longest presidential tenure in its history.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Leader in Government and Education

Paul Parks served as Director of Model Cities under Boston Mayor Kevin White, first Massachusetts Secretary of Education under Governor Frank Sargent, a member of the Board of Appeals in Boston, and president of the Board of Trustees, Boston Public Library.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First Black Celtics Star

Chuck Cooper was the first Black player on the Boston Celtics basketball team, appearing with them in the 1940s.

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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

Engineer/Bridge Designer

Harold B. Frye (1902-1989), a civil engineer with the Massachusetts Department of Public Works for over 40 years, was responsible for the design of many bridges throughout the state during his career. Born in Boston, he graduated in 1925 with a degree in engineering from Northeastern University and

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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

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.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Early Black Neighborhood

Between 1800 and 1900 most of Boston's African American residents lived in the West End, between Pinckney and Cambridge Streets and between Joy and Charles Streets - a neighborhood now called the north slope of Beacon Hill.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Malcolm X, formerly Malcolm Little (1925-1965), was one of the most fiery, controversial leaders of his time and one of the major Black leaders of the 20th century. Growing up in Boston during the 1940s, he became involved in criminal activities which landed him a ten-year prison sentence. While in

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Theodore Drury, who had earlier produced operas with Black casts in New York City, organized and trained a Black company in Boston in the early years of the 20th century. In 1907 'Aida' and a scene from 'Carmen' were produced, and 'Faust' and 'Cavalleria Rusticana' in the following year.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

First U.S. Senator since Reconstruction

In 1962 Edward W. Brooke, a Boston attorney, became the first African-American to be elected Attorney General for the Commonwealth. Two year later, in 1964, he became the first African-American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction.

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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

Women's Anti-Slavery Organizer

Born in Salem, Sara Remond (1826-1894) was a leading organizer of women for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in the 1840s and 1850s. Protesting segregation in churches, theatres, and other public places, she won a civil court suit after being ejected from the Howard Athenaeum in Boston, which

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Memories of Great Black Athletes

Fifty Sports Years Along Memory Lane: Afro-American Sports History - Hometown, Local and National by Mabray 'Doc' Kountze of West Medford was published in 1981. Kountze's book chronicles hundreds of sports figures, teams and events in greater Boston's African-American history.

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Pioneer Activist Doctor

Dr. Louis T. Wright (1891-1952), a Harvard Medical School graduate in 1915 and a leading 20th century Black physician, pioneered in the struggle of adequate health care and medical facilities until his death in 1952. His first struggle was in Boston when he was denied the opportunity to attend

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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

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

Pioneering Teacher of Reading

Wilhelmina Crosson, one of the first African-American teachers in the Boston Public Schools (1923-1949), started her career at the Hancock School in the North End. Working in the Italian-American community with first-generation Italian children, she instituted the first remedial reading program in

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Knights of Pythias

The Knights of Pythias was a fraternal and benevolent order in Boston's small and growing Black community in lower Roxbury that provided effective health insurance and death benefits to widows and orphans. Anchored in its own building at the corner of Ruggles and Washington Streets, it helped

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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

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Slave Introduces Smallpox Vaccination

The ravages of smallpox were lessened in the 1700s because Onesimus, a slave to Cotton Mather in Boston, introduced an African vaccination practice that had made his body immune to the smallpox virus. Dr. Zabdiel Boylston of Boston inoculated some 240 people, following Onesimus's description of

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Distinguished Athletes

Matthew Bullock, a graduate of Everett High, and John Shelburne, a Boston English graduate, both became All-American football players at Dartmouth College in the early 20th century. Bullock later returned to coach at Everett High, becoming the first African-American to serve as a head coach of

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

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