Boston African American National Historic Site

First published on January 1, 1831, 'The Liberator' quickly became the preeminent abolitionist newspaper in the United States. Edited by the fiery activist William Lloyd Garrison, this weekly Boston-based periodical served as a major platform to attack slavery and its supporters, inspire action, and

From a Beacon Hill boyhood beside Garrison to 15 years of boycotts that desegregated Massachusetts schools in 1855 — William Cooper Nell, activist, Underground Railroad agent and historian.

In the 1800s, the Black community of Boston succeeding in integrating the Boston Public Schools. Decades of petitions, protests, speeches, a court case, and other demonstrations culminated with the Massachusetts legislature outlawing public school segregation in 1855. Despite this law and initial su