Black History

The legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen continues to inspire almost 80 years after African Americans were first allowed to become U.S. military pilots. Reviving their glory, the Commemorative Air Force’s Red Tail Squadron celebrates black history with Rise Above, an inspirational and educational traveling exhibit about this significant aspect of aviation history.

New restrictions on voting such as the closing down of polling places, purges of voter data rolls, restrictions on voting days and language access all amount to a valid attempt to take away the right to vote for minorities and people of color.

Afrocentric hairstyles such as natural crowns, elaborate braids, twists and locs are beautiful, but natural hair wearers are often met with discrimination in the workplace and at school.

Black History Month began as a “Negro History Week” in 1926. Scholar and historian Carter G. Woodson chose the second week in February, as it contained the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, to bring awareness to African Americans’ role in shaping U.S. history. President Gerald Ford decreed Black History Month a national observance in 1976.

Long before the modern fight over safeguarding immigrants from deportation, the Shadrach Minkins case challenged Massachusetts’ status as a sanctuary state. The situation heated up after a new law required law enforcement officers to ignore the sanctuary status, and Boston’s mayor formally announced his intention to comply with the feds.

In 2018, the tomb holding Martin Luther King Jr. was covered in plastic while workers spruced up the reflecting pool that surrounds it. Written in the tiles is King’s promise that he will never be satisfied “until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

William Monroe Trotter considered his newspaper, the Guardian, to be in the abolitionist tradition. His idol was William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the Liberator, and leader of the abolitionist movement in the United States. Trotter kept a bust of Garrison on his desk. In 1908 when office space became available, Trotter opened the downtown offices of the Guardian in the same building on Cornhill which had once housed the Liberator.

On the night of Sept. 2, 1903, national black leader Booker Taliaferro Washington delivered a short but uplifting address to young black Cantabrigians on the importance of saving, purchasing property and going into business. Invited by then-third Assistant U.S. District Attorney William Henry Lewis, Washington spoke at Mt. Olive Baptist Church (now known as the Massachusetts Avenue Baptist Church).

The creator of what’s now known as Black History Month hoped for a day when it would no longer be required.

On Tremont Street in Lower Roxbury there is a building with a mural on it. It features the likeness of Frederick Douglass. Who was Frederick Douglass?

On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Louise Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus. By staying seated, she stood up to racial injustice in America and helped spark a wave of protest for civil rights in the United States.

Civil rights is a complicated issue for even grown-ups to work out and Martin Luther King Jr. Day is more than just a day off school. Here are some activities you and your family can do together to help children understand King and the civil rights movement.