What do an agricultural inventor, a visionary sculptor and grocery-turned-bookstore owner have in common?
They’re all Black New Englanders who you probably don’t know much about – but definitely should.
Here are 10 individuals’ stories to learn during Black History Month.
Who helped organize the National Federation of Afro-American Women?
In 1886, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, of Boston, founded and edited the country’s first newspaper published by and for African-American women, called “the Women’s Era.”
Ruffin is later credited with organizing the National Federation of Afro-American Women in 1895. She also convened the first National Conference of the Colored Women of America, which drew attendees to Boston from 14 states.
She was a founding charter member of the NAACP in 1910.
Today, Ruffin is among six influential women depicted in bronze busts at the Mass. State House.
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Why is Prince Whipple important?
Prince Whipple, an enslaved — and later freed — man in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, notably fought at the battles of Saratoga and in Delaware during the Revolutionary War. He was one of 20 enslaved men who petitioned the New Hampshire Legislature for freedom in 1779 – a time when literacy was unusual among the enslaved in the Granite State.
The 20 petitioners sought emancipation and abolition of slavery in New Hampshire, but their emotional, powerful petition was tabled without legislative action.
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In 2013 – 233 years later – the New Hampshire Legislature voted to approve their petition for freedom.
Prince Whipple was owned by Gen. William Whipple, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and aide to Gen. George Washington.
The general granted Prince Whipple his freedom after the war.
Who was David Ruggles?
David Ruggles is credited with being the first Black bookstore owner in the U.S. He also assisted hundreds escaping slavery through the Underground Railroad and mentored Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and William Cooper Nell.
Ruggles was born in Connecticut in 1810 but lived most of his life in New York. According to the David Ruggles Center, Ruggles opened a grocery shop in New York City that also served as a lending library and reading room for African-Americans who were denied access to public libraries. It’s believed to have been the first Black-owned bookstore in the country.
Ruggles later moved to Florence, Massachusetts, where he died in 1849.
Who was Stephen Bates?
Stephen Bates, Vermont’s first known Black police leader, escaped slavery in the South and was first elected sheriff of Vergennes in 1879, just more than a decade after the end of the Civil War.
He was re-elected 23 times to serve as the city’s sheriff, a position he held until his death in 1907.
Today, a group of Vermont and Massachusetts residents, including some of Bates’ descendants, hope to secure a historical marker for the place in Vergennes where Bates is believed to have lived.
Who was Dorothy Crockett?
Dorothy Crockett was the first female African American lawyer in Rhode Island. Crockett made headlines in 1932 when she opened a private practice in Rhode Island at age 21.
Crockett, born in Providence, was one of the very few women of any background practicing law at that time. She often appeared in The Providence Journal and other newspapers for her outspokenness on politics and civil rights.
She was the only African American woman admitted to the state bar until 1970. The Roger Williams University School of Law named a classroom in her honor in 2019.
Did John Albert Burr invent the lawn mower?
John Albert Burr, originally of Maryland, was living in Agawam, Massachusetts, when he filed his patent for the rotary mower in 1898.
A Black inventor, Burr held more than 30 U.S. patents for lawn care and agricultural inventions, according to the African American Registry, including devices for mulching clippings, sifting and dispersing them.
His patent for the rotary blade lawn mower was officially granted in 1899. Burr died in 1926.
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Why is Harriet Wilson important?
With the publishing of her book “Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black,” Harriet Wilson is believed to be the first African American woman to publish a novel in the U.S.
Wilson lived in Milford, New Hampshire. Her book, published in 1859, “became a powerful and controversial narrative that continues to touch and unsettle readers around the world,” according to the Harriet Wilson Project.
Wilson’s book was long thought to have been written by a white author, but when the novel was republished with the discovery that the author was Black, it “turned the literary world on its end.”
The Harriet Wilson Project was founded in 2003 as a response to an op-ed in the town of Milford’s local newspaper outlining why Wilson’s novel should not be studied at the high school level.
There is now a historical landmark statue of Wilson in Milford.
Who was John Brown Russwurm?
John Brown Russwurm was Bowdoin College’s first African American graduate, and the third African American to graduate from an American college.
Russwurm graduated from the Maine college in 1826. He later taught at a school for Black children in Boston, and helped found “Freedom’s Journal” in New York City, the first newspaper in the country owned and operated by African Americans.
Russwurm left New York for the American Colonization Society colony of Liberia, where he served as colonial secretary. He joined the neighboring Maryland Society, where he was appointed governor in 1836.
Who was Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller?
Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, of Framingham, Massachusetts, was the first Black woman to receive a U.S. government art commission.
According to the Danforth Art Museum, Fuller is known for her “groundbreaking depictions of the African and African American experience” – as both a painter and sculptor. The Danforth Museum now has a permanent space devoted to Fuller.
She was considered part of the Harlem Renaissance and also studied in Paris, where she became a protégée of Auguste Rodin, famous for his sculpture “The Thinker.”
Fuller Middle School in Framingham is named after Fuller and her husband, Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller, who was the first African American psychiatrist.
James H. Fischer served with the Tuskegee Airmen
A resident of Stoughton and Brockton, Massachusetts, and first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Corps, James Fischer was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-Black aviation unit in World War II.
He was awarded a Purple Heart and three Bronze stars for his military service.
In April 2007, six decades after completing his military mission, Fischer was honored alongside other Tuskegee Airmen in Washington, D.C., where President George W. Bush presented them with the Congressional Gold Medal. Fischer died in 2010 at age 86.
