The Museum of African American History is dedicated to preserve, conserve and accurate interpret the contributions of African Americans in New England from the colonial period through the 19th century. 

The African Meeting House and Abiel Smith School on Beacon Hill, both built in the early 1800's, are two of the Museum of African American History's most valuable assets. Located in what once was the heart of Boston's 19th-century African American community, these buildings remain a showcase of black community organization and enduring testimony to black craftsmanship.

Once a church, a school, a vital community meeting place, the African Meeting House is open to the public. The Abiel Smith School, the nation's first public school for African American children, currently houses a first-class exhibit space and the museum store.

The African Meeting House

The African Meeting House on Beacon Hill was built in 1806 in what once was the heart of Boston's 19th century African American community. It is today a showcase of black community organization in the formative years of the new republic. 

The Meeting House was the host to giants in the Abolitionist Movement who were responsible for monumental historical events including: 

• The founding of the New England Anti-Slavery Society by William Lloyd Garrison in 1832; 
• The 1833 farewell address of Maria Stewart, a black woman and the first American born woman to speak publicly before a gender-mixed audience; 
• An 1860 anti-slavery speech by Frederick Douglass given after being run out of Tremont Temple; 
• The 1863 recruitment to the MA 54th Regiment led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.

The African Meeting House is the oldest black church edifice still standing in the United States. Before 1805, although black Bostonians could attend white churches, they generally faced discrimination. They were assigned seats only in the balconies and were not given voting privileges. 

Abiel Smith School 

This historic space commemorates the history of African Americans from slavery through the abolitionist movement, with a focus on the quest for educational equality.

In 1787, Prince Hall petitioned the Massachusetts legislature for African American access to the public school system but was denied. Eleven years later, after petitions by the black parents for separate schools were also denied, black parents organized a community school in the home of Primus Hall, Prince Hall's son, on the corner of West Cedar and Revere Streets on Beacon Hill. 

In 1808, the grammar school in the Hall home on the northeast corner of West Cedar and Revere Streets was moved to the first floor of the African Meeting House. Not until the 1820s did the city government establish two primary schools for black children. 

The Abiel Smith School was named after a white businessman who left an endowment of $2,000 to the city of Boston for the education of black children. Constructed in 1834 and dedicated in 1835, the Smith primary and grammar school replaced the Meeting House School to educate a great number of the black children of Boston. 

Between 1839 and 1855, Boston became embroiled in controversy over school desegregation. William C. Nell, once a young student of the Meeting House School, spearheaded a movement for "the day when color of skin would be no barrier to equal school rights." Nell's Equal School Association boycotted the Smith School. 

In 1848, Benjamin Roberts attempted to enroll his daughter Sarah in each of the five public schools that stood between their home and the Smith School. When Sarah was denied entrance to all of them, Roberts sued the city under an 1845 statute providing recovery of damages for any child unlawfully denied public school instruction. Abolitionists joined the case in 1849. 

Charles Sumner represented Sarah, and black attorney Robert Morris acted as co-counsel. The case was argued before Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, one of the most influential state jurists in the country. On April 8, 1850, Shaw ruled that Sumner and Roberts had not proven that Smith School instruction was inferior to that of other public schools of Boston. Nell and his association then took their cause to the state house. 

A bill to end segregation in public schools failed in 1851, but a similar measure was passed by the state legislature in 1855 and signed by the governor in April. This bill outlawed segregation in Massachusetts public schools, although the only segregated system by that time was in Boston. By the fall of 1855, black children were finally permitted to attend the public schools closest to their homes. The Smith School closed. The building was subsequently used to store school furniture and, in 1887, became the headquarters for black Civil War veterans.

Hours of Operation

10AM to 4PM, Monday through Saturday. Extended Summer Hours Thursday open until 8:00PM (through Labor Day)
Closed, November 22 and 22, 2007
December 25, and January 1.

>> Official Site and More Information

Other Related Sites of Interest...

>> BostonBlackHistory.org