|
|
Home > My Ancestors
> African American > Timeline: 1850-1949
- 1850: Benjamin Roberts sues the City of Boston in 1849 on behalf
of his five year old daughter, so that she might attend
the white school closest to their home instead of
the black school over a mile away. In January 1850
Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court decides
in the case Roberts v. City of Boston that separate
schools for black children are legal. Charles Sumner
is assisted by Robert Morris as council for the plaintiff.
Research the Supreme
Judicial Court Historical Society.
- 1850: June 27, Robert Morris (b. 1829) becomes the first black
lawyer to pass the bar in Boston.
- 1854: Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave, is captured by out-of-state
slave hunters touching off protests and violence in
Boston.
- 1854: August 24, John V. DeGrasse was admitted in due form a
member of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He was
the first black doctor admitted into the Society.
A graduate of the Medical School at Bowdoin College
in 1849, Dr. DeGrasse worked for a time as the assistant
surgeon for the United States Colored Troops during
the Civil War.
- 1855: April, A law is passed calling for the integration of all
public schools in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
In September the schools open without incident, and
in December a celebration is held to commemorate the
tireless work of community leaders in their efforts
to integrate the schools.
- 1859: Former slave and community activist Lewis
Hayden becomes the first black political appointee
in Boston. He is made the Messenger to the Massachusetts
Secretary of State.
- 1860: Census results show 2,261 blacks in Boston, accounting
for only 1.3% of the total population. 61% of black
Bostonians are born outside the state.
- 1863: February 9, Recruiting begins in Boston to raise a black
regiment for the Union Army. By May, over 800 black
men would be a part of the 54th
Regiment. In all, more than 4000 blacks from Massachusetts
would take up arms for the North in the Civil War.
- 1864-68: The Freedman's
Bureau sponsors a program that relocates blacks
from the Tidewater region of Virginia to Boston. During
the program 1083 blacks move to Boston and Cambridge.
- 1870: The official number of blacks in Boston reaches 3445.
- 1880: Boston's black population rises to 5854 and by 1890 it
reaches 8000.
- 1890: June 25, W.E.B. DuBois graduates cum laude from Harvard
University and delivers one of the commencement speeches.
He is the first Black person to receive a Ph.D. from
Harvard.
- 1900: Turn of the century black population in Boston reported
to be 11,591.
- 1903: July 30, The Boston "Riot" at the Columbia Street African
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. What began as an
attempt by William Monroe Trotter to disrupt a speech
being given by Booker T. Washington, breaks out in
fighting between supporters of the two men. The next
day the local newspapers call it a "riot."
- 1930: Over 12,500 blacks are living in Boston, most live in the
South
End and Roxbury.
In fact, the area located between Northampton Street
on the North and Ruggles Street on the South, Washington
Street on the East and Tremont Street on the West
was populated by approximately five thousand black
people, or 40% of the entire black population of Boston
proper.
- 1938: Malcolm Little moves to Boston and attends the eighth grade.
He would stay in the Boston area for the next eight
years.
- 1940: Official statistics show over 23,000 blacks living in Boston.
- 1949: Otto and Muriel Snowden found Freedom House in Roxbury.
See 1750-1849 | See 1950-present
|
|
