Researching Black History at the BPL
Introduction
Since the inception of slavery in Boston up until the present day, Boston's has a long history of anti-racist organizing. From abolitionist work to Black intellectualism, from school desegregation to Black Lives Matter, Boston has been a critical Black activist site in the struggle for Black self-determination in the North.
On this page:
- Recommended subject headings
- Primary sources and research projects about Boston across various time periods
- Nonfiction books about Black Boston across various time periods
Image Right: A black and white negative of children playing Children at the Mothers for Adequate Welfare (MAW) sit-in at the Roxbury Crossing welfare office. Part of the Brearley Collection at the Boston Public Library.
Example Library of Congress Subject Headings for Black history in Boston:
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African Americans — Civil rights — Massachusetts — Boston Region — History — 19th century.
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African Americans — Employment — Massachusetts — Boston — History.
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African Americans — Massachusetts — Boston — Economic conditions.
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African Americans — Massachusetts — Boston — Social conditions.
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African Americans — Massachusetts — Boston Region — History — 19th century.
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Boston (Mass.) — History — Civil War, 1861-1865 — Social aspects.
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Free African Americans — Massachusetts — Boston Region — History — 19th century.
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Free African Americans — Civil rights — Massachusetts — Boston Region — History — 19th century.
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Free Black people — Massachusetts — Boston — Social conditions — 19th century.
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Fugitive slaves — Massachusetts — Boston — Social conditions — 19th century.
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Lending Practices — Massachusetts — Boston — Racial Discrimination.
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Race discrimination — Massachusetts — Boston — Banks and Banking.
Boston Across the Years: Primary Sources and Research Projects
Digitized photographs, manuscripts, books and other material of local and historical interest from the Boston Public Library and other libraries, museums, archives, and historical societies in Massachusetts.
- Black History Boston
The dedicated City of Boston history portal to learn about important people and events in the Black history of Boston.
- Boston's Continuing Revolution
National Park Service website with information about Black history in Boston. Centered on the north slope of Beacon Hill, the African American community of 1800s Boston led the city and the nation in the fight against slavery and injustice. These remarkable men and women, together with their allies, were leaders in the Abolition Movement, the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, and the early struggle for equal rights and education.
A series of articles from the National Park Service about desegregation in Boston.
An online exhibit from the Museum of African American History where you meet Boston's black community leaders, abolitionists, and
activists and explore the ways in which they strategically used the power of public memory in their pursuit of freedom.
- Historic Resource Study : Boston African American National Historic Site
This Historic Resource Study presents detailed descriptions both of properties already included within Boston African American National Historic Site (BOAF) and of properties that, on the basis of their historical and architectural significance, we have judged worthy of inclusion in BOAF. These descriptions are preceded by an examination of how the neighborhood BOAF interprets evolved and a brief discussion of the people who lived within it. There are two appendices. The first is a set of architectural descriptions of sites accompanied by photographs and a chain of title; the second is a set of map reproductions illustrating the physical development of the West End of Boston between 1722 and 1884.The Griffin M. Hopkins Map of the City of Boston, and Its Environs (1874) has been marked to show both current and recommended BOAF sites.
- Timeline of Black & Indigenous Radical Protest in Boston
A timeline put together by the City of Boston about the history of protest and activism in the City.
- Great Migration to Global Immigration: A Profile of Black Boston
Great Migration to Global Immigration: A Profile of Black Boston analyzes the region’s unique and growing intra-Black diversity, explores how the growing Black middle-class has helped revitalize cities and towns outside of Boston’s inner core, and details how disparities by income and wealth manifest across Black communities.
Boston Across the Years: Nonfiction Books
- African-Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years byCall Number: F73.9.N4 H39 1992xISBN: 9780890730836Publication Date: 1992-01-01A "must" introduction to significant African-American events & people in Massachusetts where so much American history began. Also available as a free e-book.
- African American Heritage in Massachusetts: Exploring the Legacy: People and Places of Significance byCall Number: E185.93.M3 E43 2016xISBN: 0997597208Publication Date: 2016-09-15A tourist book of sites in Massachusetts significant to African American history.
Before Busing : A History of Boston's Long Black Freedom Struggle by Call Number: LC214.23.B67 M55 2022ISBN: 9781469662770Publication Date: 2022-12-06In many histories of Boston, African Americans have remained almost invisible. Partly as a result, when the 1972 crisis over school desegregation and busing erupted, many observers professed shock at the overt racism on display in the "cradle of liberty." Yet the city has long been divided over matters of race, and it was also home to a far older Black organizing tradition than many realize. A community of Black activists had fought segregated education since the origins of public schooling and racial inequality since the end of northern slavery. Before Busing tells the story of the men and women who struggled and demonstrated to make school desegregation a reality in Boston. It reveals the legal efforts and battles over tactics that played out locally and influenced the national Black freedom struggle. And the book gives credit to the Black organizers, parents, and children who fought long and hard battles for justice that have been left out of the standard narratives of the civil rights movement. What emerges is a clear picture of the long and hard-fought campaigns to break the back of Jim Crow education in the North and make Boston into a better, more democratic city--a fight that continues to this day.
Black Boston : Documentary Photography and the African American Experience by Call Number: F73.9.N4 S48 1994ISBN: 9781881450030Publication Date: 1994-06-29- In Freedom's Birthplace: a Study of the Boston Negroes byCall Number: F73.9.N4 D2 1914bPublication Date: 1914
- Intra-urban Migration Patterns Boston's Black Community, 1638-1973 byCall Number: F73.9.N4 G66 1974xPublication Date: 1974
Shut Out : a Story of Race and Baseball in Boston by Call Number: GV875.B62 B79 2002ISBN: 0807009792Publication Date: 2003-09-02With a new introduction by celebrated baseball writer Roger Kahn and a new afterword by the author, updating John Henry's first year of ownership after nearly six decades of the Yawkey dynasty, the legacy of the late Will McDonough, and the author's return to his native Boston after a seventeen-year absence, Shut Out has reopened the discussion of baseball, race, and Boston with a new candor.
