Stay engaged with the MHS this year.
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“Bob. Shaw (Robert Gould Shaw) came to me and proposed as we couldn’t go home that we should try and get 48 hours leave from Genl. Banks... We arrived at Baltimore at 10 A.M and took carriage for the Gilmore House, here we washed and polished up, then took a stroll ’round the city... I was extremely pleased with Baltimore, it seemed so much like Boston that I kept imagining I was on Washington St., the people too had a very Boston look; we visited the Washington Monument, and went to the top, both making up our minds on the stairs we never would go up such a place again, the view of B. from the top however, was very fine commanding the whole city and surrounding country. ”
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Letter from John A. Andrew to Robert Gould Shaw, 30 January 1863
The Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial was recently placed back on the Boston Common after being restored. The 54th Regiment was the first Black regiment raised in the North during the Civil War. In this letter Governor Andrew of Massachusetts offers Shaw the Colonelcy and charge of the regiment, to be composed of Black soldiers led by white officers. Andrew writes,
“Captain:
I am about to organise in Massachusetts
a Colored Regiment as part of the volunteer quota of this State-the commissioned officers to be white men. I have to day written to your father, expressing to him my sense of the importance of this undertaking and requesting him to forward to you this letter, in which I offer to you the commission of Colonel over it. The Lt. Colonelcy I have offered to Capt. Hallowell of the 20th Mass. Regt.”
Shaw accepted the commission, and African American volunteers enlisted in such large numbers that a second Black infantry regiment, the 55th Massachusetts, was formed. On the battlefield, the 54th fought bravely, but suffered heavy losses during an assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, on 18 July 1863. Many men perished, Colonel Shaw among them. Sergeant William H. Carney, a survivor of the battle, would later receive the Medal of Honor for saving the regimental colors after the regiment’s color guard fell.
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MHS’s online programs are held on the video conference platform Zoom. Registrants will receive an e-mail with a link to join the program.
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Confronting Racial Injustice: The Charles Stuart Story: White Lies and Black Lives
On Wednesday, 9 June, at 6:00 PM, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Dean, Boston University School of Law; Hon. Leslie Harris (ret.), Suffolk Juvenile Court; and Renée Graham, Columnist, The Boston Globe, present Confronting Racial Injustice: The Charles Stuart Story: White Lies and Black Lives, moderated by Kim McLaurin, Associate Dean, Suffolk University Law School.
Charles Stuart, a white man, murdered his wife and unborn child in Boston in 1989 and falsely blamed the attack on a nonexistent Black man. Believing Stuart’s lie, the police engaged in a massive manhunt that terrorized a Black community in Mission Hill with detention, public strip-searches, and the arrest of two innocent men. As some lawmakers demanded the death penalty, the media perpetuated this false story. The Stuart case exemplifies how the narrative of white supremacy continues to lead to the dehumanization and devaluation of Black lives. Widespread acceptance of white lies over Black lives persists today.
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The Education Trap: Schools and the Remaking of Inequality in Boston
For generations, Americans have looked to education as the solution to economic disadvantage. Yet, although more people are earning degrees, the gap between rich and poor is widening. The Education Trap delves into the history of this seeming contradiction, using the city of Boston as a test case. Even as Boston spent heavily on public schools the first decades of the twentieth century, the shift to more educated labor had negative consequences—both intended and unintended—for many workers. Employers supported training in schools in order to undermine the influence of craft unions, shifting workplace power toward management. Advanced educational credentials became a means of controlling access to high-paying professional and business jobs, concentrating power and wealth. Formal education thus became a central force in maintaining inequality.
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Interested in Viewing Past Programs? |
If you missed a program or would like to revisit the material presented, please visit www.masshist.org/video or our YouTube channel. A selection of past programs is just a click away.
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Share Your COVID-19 Experience(s) |
The MHS invites you to contribute your COVID-19 experience(s) to our collection. Record your experiences on a daily, weekly, or intermittent basis. You can contribute your thoughts and images online. Visit our COVID-19 web display to learn more and to share your thoughts. Or you can keep a journal and donate it to the MHS. Contact collections@masshist.org for more information.
Thank you to everyone who has shared so far. If you have not yet done so or would like to contribute again, please visit www.masshist.org/projects/covid/index.php. You can also read what others have shared.
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