Resources

Lower Roxbury Black History Project

On 9 November 2006, Northeastern University President Joseph E. Aoun met with members of the Black Ministerial Alliance of Massachusetts at the People's Baptist Church to discuss possible collaborations between Northeastern and Lower Roxbury clergy. During the meeting, Reverend Michael E. Haynes suggested the University create a history of the African American community in Lower Roxbury. As a result, President Aoun appointed Joseph D. Warren, at that time Special Assistant to the Director of Government Relations and Community Affairs, to oversee the Lower Roxbury Black History Project. Warren appointed an advisory board consisting of Rev. Michael E. Haynes, formerly of Roxbury's Twelfth Baptist Church; Massachusetts State Representative Byron Rushing; Northeastern University Archivist Joan D. Krizack; Northeastern University history professors William M. Fowler Jr., Gerald H. Herman, Robert L. Hall; and Northeastern Vice President for Public Affairs Robert P. Gittens.

In November 2007, Warren hired Lolita Parker Jr., a photographer and documentary film researcher, to collect oral histories and artifacts documenting the community's rich history. From 2007-2009 with the assistance of her son, London Parker-McWhorter, Parker spoke with over 40 residents of Roxbury. Participants were selected in three ways: one, Rev. Michael Haynes recommended members of his congregation; two, Lolita Parker Jr. posted fliers in Roxbury asking for participants; and three, during the interviews, interviewees suggested other participants. Interviewees discussed their families, childhoods, and specific areas in Roxbury, such as Roxbury Crossing, Sawyer Street, and Haskins Street from the early to mid-twentieth century. Records include audio, video, edited and unedited transcripts of interviews, scans, and photographs.

 

The Lower Roxbury Black History Project is part of Northeastern University's continued commitment to collecting, preserving, and providing access to the rich historical legacy of Roxbury, and the voices of its residents: past, present, and future by carefully curating an archived collection of primary sources and digital oral histories. To learn more about more about the Lower Roxbury Black History Project, please visit: http://nb9662.neu.edu/roxbury/

Boston's Latinx Community History

Boston's Latino/a Community History Collection is a project of the Northeastern University's University Archives and Special Collections. Over 41,000 items were selected, digitized, and made freely available to be a resource for community members, scholars, and students of all ages. These items were drawn from two local partner organizations whose historical records were donated to Northeastern University, Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción and La Alizanza Hispana. To learn more about more about the Boston's Latinx Community History project, visit: https://latinxhistory.library.northeastern.edu/ !!!<Add new WP URL here>!!!

Boston's LGBTQA+ History

Northeastern is proud to house numerous collections illustrating a diverse range of individuals, activism, and networks in the Boston LGBTQA community from the 1970s onwards. The collections in part detail the response to the AIDS crisis in Boston with the formation and activities of organizations including the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power Boston chapter (ACT UP / Boston), AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, Inc., and other activist groups in the 1980s and 90s.

 

The history of LGBTQA political and labor organizing in Boston is reflected in the collections, alongside histories of the creation of community groups such as the Fenway Community Health Center and Men of All Colors Together Boston. The collections also include the records on the establishment of LGBTQA

 

youth and students groups in Boston, notably the Boston Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Youth, Inc. (BAGLY), the first and longest-running youth-led LGBTQA group in Boston. The Bromfield Street Education Foundation, originally established as the Gay Community News in 1973, offers an extensive collection of records on the publication of the Boston-based progressive

newspaper as well as the organization’s initiatives on prison justice and amplifying the voices of gay and lesbian writers through local events and annual conferences. LGBTQA arts and theater organizations in the Boston area are also represented in the collections, including records from The Theater Offensive, a queer, progressive theater troupe. Other unprocessed collections, including the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus records, are also available for research.

Bibliography

Barnet, Alison. Once upon a Neighborhood: A Timeline and Anecdotal History of the South End of Boston. 360 Digital Books, 2019.

Barnet, Anne Alison. South End Character: Speaking Out on Neighborhood Change. 2013.

Boer, Albert. The Development of USES: A Chronology of the United South End Settlements, 1891-1966. Boston: United South End Settlements, [1966].

Boston Planning & Development Agency, “566 Columbus Avenue,” Boston Planning & Development Agency, accessed April 16, 2021, http://www.bostonplans.org/projects/development-projects/566-columbus-avenue.

Crockett, Karilyn. People Before Highways: Boston Activists, Urban Planners, and a New Movement for City Making. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2018.

Gonzalez, Tomas and Zebulon Miletsky. “How Gentrification and Displacement Are Remaking Boston.” Black Perspectives, 2017. https://www.aaihs.org/how-gentrification-and-displacement-are-remaking-boston/

Hochfelder, David, Ann Pfau, and Stacy Sewell. “Urban Renewal.” The Inclusive Historian’s Handbook, 2019.

https://inclusivehistorian.com/urban-renewal/

Lopez, Russ. Boston’s South End: The Clash of Ideas in a Historic Neighborhood. Boston: Shawmut Peninsula Press, 2015.

Lopez, Russ. The Hub of the Gay Universe. Boston: Shawmut Peninsula Press, 2019.

Potts, Lynne. A Block in Time: A History of Boston's South End From A Window on Holyoke Street. New York: Local History Publishers, c2012.

Potts, Lynne. Faces of A Neighborhood: Boston's South End in the Early Twenty-first Century. New York: Local History Publishers, 2016.

Prescott, Lauren. Boston's South End. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, [2018].

Rotenstein, David. “Historic Preservation Shines a Light on a Dark Past.” History@Work blog.

https://ncph.org/history-at-work/historic-preservation-shines-a-light/.

Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell. Boston's South End. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2005.

Shannon, Hope J. Legendary Locals of Boston's South End, Massachusetts. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, [2014].

South End Historical Society. “South End History, Part II: Boston’s Melting Pot.” South End Historical Society, 2012. https://www.southendhistoricalsociety.org/south-end-history-part-ii-bostons-melting-pot/

South End Historical Society. “South End History, Part III: Urban Renewal.” South End Historical Society, 2012. https://www.southendhistoricalsociety.org/south-end-history-part-iii-urban-renewal/

Tissot, Sylvie. Good Neighbors: Gentrifying Diversity in Boston's South End. London: Verso, 2015.