New Bedford, Darthmouth and Westport now have a Cuffe African-American, native American heritage trail which can be checked out at paulcuffe.org
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Nice article: it reminds us that hotbeds of racism and bigotry can change....
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Martha's Vineyard has had its own African-American Trail for years, and it is of no small interest. Please see their website, at
http://mvafricanamericanheritagetrail.org/
There are guided tours available through the website as well as through commercial tour companies on the island.
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Berkshire County should be featured next, especially Great Barrington, the birthplace of W.E.B. DuBois.
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Great work by these professors. I can assure you that in Boston, Ma, less than 10% of it’s population knows anything about these African American Heritage sites. 500 random readers at AboutBlackBoston.org Getaways were asked about some of them last summer and over 86% did not know.
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Sadly this article brings up the Royal House's slave history but neglects the fact that West Medford located near it and next to Tufts University is one of the oldest FREE BLACK COMMUNITIES in the country.
It is where it is precisely because of abolitionist efforts of historic figures from Tufts and preachers from early area churches who did in fact take in refuge slaves and help allow people of color from New England to congregate in a community.
This community has remained African American and relatively intact in the otherwise white suburbs of Boston. suburb
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I'd like to hear more about Italian and Italian-American history. Starting with Christopher Columbus, they have contributed a great deal to America, but we never seem to hear about it.
Why not, each year, celebrate the history of a different ethnic group?
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@Jonathan Katz
I'd love to hear more about Polish and Polish-American history - but this is an article about African-American history, and this is Black history month. You can't give them an article and a month?
Besides, you might not like the truth about Christopher Columbus.
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@Jonathan Katz
You’ll find the Columbus story in libraries, textbooks and most households today Johnathan.
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Glad they've done this building on the work of lots of community-based organizations and the Bay State Banner newspaper have done over the years to share Black History in the Commonwealth. Contrary to this reporter's assertion, a lot of people do check out A. Philip Randolph's sculpture and the photo displays nearby especially the first time we encounter them.
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Glad to learn about this. Yes, we need more historical education about our racist past to change racism that is still rampant in the present....
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Just hope they add New Bedford’s contribution to the list. William H Carney was a resident of NB, fought with the 54th, and won the Congressional Medal of Honor.
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