Black History Month - The Boston Globe

Allan Rohan Crite in his Boston home in 2002.

Social Justice

Allan Rohan Crite, dean of Black artists in New England, painted the ordinary and the divine

Allan Rohan Crite painted the scenes around his home in the South End and neighboring Roxbury. He captured life and faith for Black people in the city and mentored up-and-coming artists. 5:16 p.m.

John J. Smith

Metro

John J. Smith, state representative, abolitionist who rescued Black people from slavery

As a barber, Smith prided himself on serving any customer, regardless of the man’s race or nationality. But Smith’s belief in justice was not confined inside the walls of his shop. 2:12 p.m.

Left: An 1849 engraving of the Abiel Smith School, the first public school established for Black children in the United States. Right: The building is now part of the Museum of African American History’s Boston campus.

Social Justice

How Roberts v. City of Boston set a precedent to uphold racial segregation in schools

Five-year-old Sarah Roberts was denied enrollment from every public school in Boston, except for the all-Black Smith School, located far from where she lived. Her father, Benjamin Roberts, decided to sue the city, and the Supreme Court case went on to define the century-long struggle to desegregate schools. 2:20 p.m.

Street art welcomes visitors to Jackson Ward, the neighborhood that has been called both the Harlem of the South and Black Wall Street.

Travel

Exploring and celebrating the uplifting Black stories from Richmond’s painful past

Like many cities around the country, Richmond is experiencing a racial reckoning, although here that reckoning feels like a renaissance. 9:14 a.m.

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller's sculpture at Harriet Tubman Square. "Emancipation" was created as a plaster version in 1913 for Commemoration of the Emancipation Proclamation. More than eighty years later (1999), it was cast in bronze for Harriet Tubman Square in Boston's South End.

Social Justice

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, sculptor who depicted the Black experience

Fuller is renowned for sculptures that depicted the Black experience and anticipated themes of the Harlem Renaissance. 5:03 p.m.

Edward W. Brooke joined campaign workers in celebration in Boston after winning the Republican nomination for US Senate in 1966.

Social Justice

As first popularly elected Black senator, Edward Brooke defied political odds

His historic win, the first African American popularly elected to US Senate and the first elected since Reconstruction, resonated across the world. Brooke, a Republican, established himself as a civil rights champion and pioneer. 4:42 p.m.

William Monroe Trotter began publishing the Boston Guardian, a weekly Black newspaper, in November of 1901, and over the following three decades he urged a confrontational style of protest that would later influence the movement for civil rights.

Social Justice

William Monroe Trotter, editor of the Boston Guardian

William Monroe Trotter graduated from Hyde Park High School and Harvard before he began publishing the Boston Guardian, a weekly African American newspaper, in November of 1901. 2:16 p.m.

In 2014, Hubie Jones (center) received the Governor's Award in the Humanities.

Social Justice

Hubie Jones exposed Boston Public Schools for its exclusion of thousands of students with special needs

Hubie Jones, a social worker, was behind the task force that examined problems facing Boston public school students. His work led to many permanent changes. 12:38 p.m.