Hub African-American museum marks 50 years
The Museum of African American History will mark its 50th anniversary Sunday with a celebration at the Four Seasons Hotel and the presentation of its Living Legends Award to two Afri- can-American luminaries in recognition of their extraordinary work.
A half-century after the city’s venerable African Meeting House was christened the Museum of African American History, the museum will recognize MacArthur Fellow, nationally acclaimed Harvard sociologist and author Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot and biotech leader Dr. Tony Coles, founder of Yumanity Therapeutics, which specializes in Alzheimer’s, ALS and Parkinson’s research — diseases that disproportionately impact people of color.
Proceeds from the festivities will benefit the museum’s many programs that continue to enlighten and inspire.
Beacon Hill’s African Meeting House, a national treasure, was built and paid for in 1806 by free blacks who were tired of discriminatory practices, even in houses of worship. It holds the distinction of being the nation’s oldest standing black church.
When you walk inside the Meeting House, you can close your eyes and feel the spirit of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who often spoke there. You can almost hear William Lloyd Garrison, who started the New England Anti-Slavery Society in the building — and whose ancestors still support the museum.
It was where Maria Stewart, the first black female political orator, took to the floor to argue for the rights of blacks and women. It was where the heroic, all-black 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was formed. It’s a hallowed place, not just for its chronicling of African-American history but because of its important place in American history.
Today, as then, it remains a centerpiece of community spirit, where African-Americans choose to marry by the tradition of “jumping the broom.”
It’s also a place where young people learn about a history not always portrayed in history books.
When the building fell into disrepair over the years, the keepers of the flame, like their forbearers before them, found ways to keep the structure that housed an indomitable spirit strong. Among them, state Rep. Byron Rushing, the inimitable Ruth Batson, Henry Hampton and Beverly Morgan-Welch, to name a few. Current CEO Marita Rivero, once a longtime board member, is now building upon and expanding the work that makes the Meeting House a place of inspired history.
Sunday’s silver anniversary will help maintain a tradition that amplifies and illuminates the African-American community’s past, present and future accomplishments.