Topic: African Americans
Black West Enders, other Black Americans
The African Meeting House, believed to be the oldest standing Black church in America, was incorporated in 1805 and built in 1806. The building, now restored to its 1855 appearance, stands as a testament to the dedication and perseverance of the Black community on the north slope of Beacon Hill (which was at the time part of the West End). The African Baptist Church purchased the land for, fundraised for, and constructed the Meeting House in less than two years. Through this, they created a vital space for the Black community’s religious, political, and social gatherings.
Harriet Hayden was born enslaved, fought for her freedom, and aided hundreds of southern escapees by housing, feeding, and protecting them. She did this all while raising a family, running a boarding house, learning to read and write, and becoming an activist and community leader. Without her efforts, the many accomplishments of her husband, Lewis Hayden, would not have been possible.
The 1830s was a transformative decade for Boston’s Black community, characterized by the intersecting forces of burgeoning abolitionist activism and escalating urban segregation. This resulted in the growth and consolidation of the Black population in the West End on the North Slope of Beacon Hill.
When professional rowing was the biggest sport going, Frenchy Johnson burst out of the West End to become the fastest oarsman in Boston, and among the first African-American athletes to achieve national recognition. And rowing wasn’t even his best sport.
In 1847, sixty-six former slaves arrived at Boston’s Long Wharf. One of the group’s members, Peter Randolph, was instrumental in securing the former slaves’ freedom and the compensation promised to them. Randolph and others from the sixty-six became active members of the West End community.
As emancipated men, women, and children migrated north after the Civil War, the need for Black boarding houses increased greatly. In the West End a large concentration of Black, women-operated boarding houses became home for many of these newly-freed people.
Boarding Houses played an important role in the housing system during the age of industrialization and immigration in Boston and the West End. Along with lodging and rooming houses, they were the only alternative for those in need of affordable and transitional living space in the neighborhood until the arrival of tenements and apartment buildings. Boarding houses also offered women of the period one of the few ways to earn a decent income.
Richie Nedd was one of the historic West End’s Black residents and a board member of The West End Museum before his passing in 2011. Nedd’s article for the June 1998 issue of The West Ender, “A Black Man’s View of the West End,” features he and other Black residents coming together in reunions of hundreds of West Enders after urban renewal.
