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Past time for a statue in Boston honoring Crispus Attucks, councilor says
By adamg on Sat, 03/09/2024 - 12:25pm
Attucks lies dying, from The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution.
The City Council will consider a measure to permanently honor Crispus Attucks, the first man to die in the Boston Massacre.
City Councilor Brian Worrell, who sponsored the measure to start work towards commissioning a statue, noted that New York and Philadelphia have statues of Attucks, a Framingham native and a freed Black man, who died on March 5, 1770, when British soldiers fired two musket balls into his chest.
In the following days, the people of Boston held a funeral procession for the victims of the massacre. Because Attucks and fellow victim and sailor James Caldwell had no family or home in Boston, their bodies lay in state at Faneuil Hall.
John Adams, then a colonial lawyer, won freedom for the soldiers who killed Attucks and four other protesters with a defense that included slurring their origins as "a motley rabble of saucy boys, Negroes, and mulattos, Irish teagues and outlandish jack tars," with "outlandish" meaning "not local."
In his request for a hearing to start the process, Worrell wrote:
Attucks' bravery and sacrifice symbolize the fight for freedom and equity, serving as an inspiration to generations of Bostonians and Americans alike. Crispus Attucks played a pivotal role in the events leading up to the American Revolution, demonstrating the courage and resilience of marginalized communities in the face of oppression and injustice.
Attucks' name is on a Boston Massacre memorial on the Common, along with the names of the others who died - Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell, Samuel Gray, and Patrick Carr - and an allegorical figure of victory.
Worrell also introduced a second measure to declare March 5 Crispus Attucks Day in Boston.
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Comments
CRISPUS ATTUCKS WAS KILLED ON MARCH 5, 1770!!!!!!
(and so were four others).
Brian - Instead of grandstanding on things like this, why don't you send your kids to Boston Public Schools instead of METCO.
Six exclamation points??????
Wow, didn't realize this would make you 1930s work-whistle angry.
But why are you emphasizing the date? Worrell's hearing request gets it right. If you're that upset, though, surely you know there'll be a public hearing where you can explode like, well, a 1930s work whistle in righteous wrath.
Grow Up Gaffin
Seriously.
Five people were killed that day but somehow only one needs their own special memorial? Seems like a lot of BS to me.
Also, if you don't realize the emphasizing of the date, that was the date of the Boston Massacre. Try harder in knowing about Boston's history.
What was the date of the Boston Massacre again?
Could you make it bigger, like this?
March 5, 1770
Ah, much better. Yeah, I get it. And yeah, I also get where Worrell is coming from, even without gratuitous insults about where he got his education (you do realize Boston suburbs teach about the Revolution, too, and some of them even played a role in the war, right?).
We Could Put Another Statue Up....
At the Holy Name Rotary.
It can be of Adam running away from old people asking him questions.
My point is that 5 people were killed by British soldiers on March 5, 1770, not just one. Somehow that appears to be lost on you and a lot of others. Attucks, who was just one of a bunch of drunks throwing things at the local cops who then opened fire.
The deification of the five was the result of very good publicity by Sam Adams and others who took advantage of the shootings. Somehow a movement is on to extra extra deify one of the five by, politicians taking advantage of a situation to score points with their constituents, just like in the early 1770's.
We could name a new school after him though, and perhaps the Boston City Councilor who has decided that the Boston school system is beneath him, could send his kids there.
Chill out….
If a Crispus Attucks statue makes you this upset, you’ll really blow a gasket when famous Bostonian Rene Wagler gets his.
I wasn't running away
I don't run short of a truck hurtling towards me or if I'm trying to catch a train.
I was standing there and decided I had better ways to spend my time than being pestered by one old guy with a camera - especially one old guy with a camera who, when police are around, likes to bump into people on purpose and then yell at the cops that he's just been assaulted (and as you know, since you've obviously got the video on repeat, this was right in front of the E-5 police station), and one young woman who probably doesn't run any more than I do, so I walked away.
For everybody else: This sub-tweeting, vaguebooking moment brought to you by the events leading up to this story, in which I covered two protests involving changes to Centre Street in West Roxbury, which has absolutely nothing to do with Crispus Attucks, Brian Worrell or really, anything else here, except John loves squirreling away factoids he can use to hurl what he likes to think are cutting insults at people who disagree with him. Surprised you didn't mention my PPP loan - the screaming anti-vaxxers love bringing that up.
Ah Yes!
Already letting in Anons to back you up.
Own up to the fact that when someone throws a fact to counter you, you won't admit you are wrong and then you start posting Anons which make you look better.
You even can't read that I was talking about Worrell's kids going to METCO schools and not him.
PS - I don't give a shit about your PPP loan by the way. Why you got one is beyond me, but I don't care.
Damn, John
I saw your name dragged into the comments of the Morrissey flooding story, apropos of nothing, and I thought that was odd and unnecessary. I thought about saying something in that thread about how we don't need to invent reasons to bicker in the comments, let's leave the disagreements to issues of substance.
But then here's you over on this story going off on a real strong tangent.
What exactly is the issue you have here? You are seemingly accusing Adam of being factually incorrect about something that he won't correct. What objectively factual inaccuracy did he make? All of the details about this historical event that you seem to be highlighting are included in Adam's story, as best I can tell.
Not Incorrect Details
Just being annoyed about the overemphasizing of 1 person in an event in which 5 people died, not just 1.
I pointed out that a politician was trying to score points by elevating the trauma of one person over the equal trauma of four others. That's it.
Adam took it the wrong way and couldn't even understand that a Boston City Councilor sends his kids to public schools outside the city. Kind of weird that someone who represents a neighborhood of the city, sends his kids outside of the city to be educated. I have no idea where the City Councilor went to school though, though Adam thinks I was talking about the councilor. The City Councilor freely admitted that point about his kids' education in the Globe a few weeks ago.
Then some really old person got on and accused me of being an alcoholic and suffering from mental illness. That's a whole other story which hopefully I might be able to get enough money to buy a summer place. You really should not slander people about being substance abusers or having mental health issues because you don't share their worldview. That is some Cultural Revolution level shit there.
That's all.
Say the Quite Part Loud
I dare you to. If the first person to be killed in the Boston Massacre were white then I highly doubt you'd have a problem with that person being especially memorialized.
Instead of harassing someone who consistently does an amazing job covering local news on a website you don't ever have to visit, do something useful with your time, like sitting quietly in the Common until your personality changes.
Nope. You are wrong.
Please put your race card up your small intestine. Thanks.
Also, I can sit quietly on the Common....and look at the memorial for the five people killed on March 5, 1770. It's right there across from Tremont on the Common.
According to contemporary
According to contemporary news flyers of the day Crispus Attucks was the first person to die at the Boston Massacre.
https://www.masshist.org/features/massacre
Who needs to grow up?
Actually, you are acting like you are having issues with either substance use and/or mental health issues.
It is shitty how some people have been name checking you to draw you into spaces where you haven't commented, but attacking Adam for being the better man while throwing a tantrum over yet another potential memorial being proposed is really over the top.
https://www.mass.gov/info-details/mental-health-crisis-support
Every Accusation....
Is an admission of guilt by the accuser.
If you have some kind of proof that I am an abuser of alcohol or drugs, come forward with proof. If not, perhaps you can get served papers for slander.
Oh honey
You don't wanna know why I know what I know. But I know, and I can see.
Get help. Your mental health crisis is very obvious, regardless of whether there is endogenous or exogenous biochemistry involved.
There is no shame in asking for help with a health issue. Perhaps that is part of your problem - attaching a stigma to something that should not be stigmatized and can happen to anybody.
Bring It
What proof that I abuse alcohol or drugs?
What proof do you have?
Slander is a very tenuous slope there.
Be careful.
There's that stigma about mental health issues
John, seriously.
Your issues are all through your posting history.
Regardless of their origin, you need to deal with them sooner than later.
I don't GAF what your problem is - but you have one and need to address it.
I'm Calling A Lawyer
Get ready.
Seriously
Get help. Calling a medical professional will be far more productive.
You go away to clean the kitchen and ...
This is what happens?
This sub thread is more than played out. Further comments will be deleted. I need to think about deleting further up the tree, as well, given the discussion has veered into areas having nothing to do with the original topic.
Please reconsider
I will risk deletion to propose that this entire post, comment thread, subthread feuds and introduction of the worthy subject of Christopher Seider, is, in fact, Peak UHub, worthy of preservation.
(Also, FWIW, and taking no position on the subsequent comments: I understood the context of the heading and first sentence of John C's first comment to be criticizing honoring Attucks and not the other victims, not critical of the counselor's grasp of the facts.)
RLM
RLM supported the gallant first-responder heroes who protected Loyalist Boston from lawless, tea tax evaders. REDCOAT LIVES MATTERED!
What a goddamn bootlicker
What a goddamn bootlicker
Wah!
Sniffle...wah!
Poor Costello.
Wouldn’t it be appropriate
To erect something honoring all those who died that night? Including Crispus (awesome name).
It’s getting old making EVERYTHING about race. This is American history, and Crispus as well as 4 others were tragically made a part of it that night.
There's already a statue commemorating the Massacre victims
I even mentioned it in my (short, so none of this TL/DR stuff) post.
If you and John can, maybe, count to ten and calm down just a bit, and read Worrell's request for a hearing, you'll see he references the other things that make Attucks worthy on his own.
American history
We wouldn't need to discuss the role of race in American history if race didn't play such a significant role in American history. Unfortunately, it has, therefore, we discuss.
Attucks
Framingham native according to everything we learned when we were growing up in . . .Framingham.
Instead
Let us finally honor Christopher Seider who was in fact the first person killed in the American Revolution. His legacy has been pretty much erased minus a shared grave with the Boston Massacre victims, yet the events of his death have been obscured. People are not even sure where his actual body is buried. Maybe mark the spot where he was killed.
Attucks’ legacy and importance has been propped up sufficiently already.
Interesting
I did not know about this episode and I consider myself well-versed in American history. Thanks for this tidbit.
Exactly
It is crazy to think that the first actual victim was a 12 year old and we know little to nothing about him and the incident has been pushed to obscurity.
The narrative that Attucks was the first to die was pushed by the abolitionists. They wanted him to be the figurative hero ahead of the civil war. So in turn Attucks has been honored, while the actual first victim has been forgotten. Seider has nothing named for him.
They don't know where anyone
They don't know where anyone in the Granary is buried. They moved the bodies when they put in the new paths and reordered the stones into what we see today.
Same Thing With King's Chapel Ground
All of the stones were moved for paths.
The only places where they know people are, outside of those who still have the right to be buried there, and there are a limited number of people who have been buried there in the past 125 years, are those in the vaults on the easterly side of the yard.
Agree with the essential argument against a statue to one person
What is the rational for a statue to only Crispus Attucks?
Attucks was a black man and given the context that does make him deeply socially distinctive from the other men. But does the fact that he was a free black man justify a statue specifically for him in the context of The Boston Massacre?
Yes it does, actually.
At least in my opinion. Does the fact that you and some people of your ilk feel that it isn't mean that there should not be any statue? So, if there's not 100% agreement that someone gets a statue, they don't get a statue? Is that what you're saying? You're the decider?
Enough Statues
Boston has enough monuments to events that happened centuries ago. I'd like to see more public art created by contemporary artists and is forward looking.
We have a site available
that's designed for a traditional sculpture of a standing figure. It's near the Park Plaza and used to have Lincoln blessing a former slave about to rise from a kneeling position. Right now it's a monument to indecision.
I want to put a statue back
I want to put a statue back at the intersection of Warren Street, Regent Street, Moreland Street and St. James Street in Roxbury. Crispus Attucks would be a great choice for that location.
None of them deserve a statue
The thing is, it wasn't really a massacre. That was just the "fake news" of the time. A crowd of people were harassing soldiers,throwing things at them including snowballs with rocks in them,and finally they fired, killing six people. John Adams successfully defended the soldiers.
None of the people who got killed were martyrs or great war heroes.
UHub needs a Hall of Fame
Seriously.
Maybe quarterly nominations and selection by the publisher and by popular vote.
I had thought of suggesting this before but this thread prompted action.
A potential classic.
Ps. I can see how wars start over nothing.
Crispus Attucks, !!!!!!?
A bit of history from another city
I grew up in Indianapolis. I knew about Crispus Attucks before I even knew much about the Boston Massacre.
Crispus Attucks High School was part of the Indianapolis Public School system. It was located in the African-American section of town, near Indiana Avenue. The city schools were officially desegregated, but Crispus Attucks was all Black. Maybe one or two White students.
(Somewhat off the point, they always had a good basketball team and did well in the state tournament, which was a significant source of their fame.)
I didn't know the back story until years after I left Indiana and moved to Massachusetts.
The Ku Klux Klan was extremely powerful in Indiana in the 1920s, actually controlling much of the city and state government.
The Klan was responsible for creating Crispus Attucks High School.
Indianapolis public schools were actually unsegregated in the early 1920s. The Klan wanted to segregate them, so the Klan-controlled city government built the school, named it after the Black hero, and then forced all Black students to go there, no matter where they lived in the city. If anyone tried to accuse the Klan of offering inferior schools to Blacks, the Klan could say, no, we built this shiny new school for them.
By the time I was on the scene, the schools had been officially desegregated, and there were quite a few Black students in one of the schools I attended. But because Black students were forced to go to that one high school (and to elementary schools near it), many African American families who lived in other neighborhoods moved to the area around those schools. Crispus Attucks and the nearby elementary schools remained all-Black into the 1960s and '70s, because the Klan's policies had exacerbated residential segregation.
It may seem ironic that the KKK would be responsible for building a monument to Crispus Attucks, but it makes sense once you know the full story.
Crispus Attucks High School
Crispus Attucks High School is always what first comes to mind whenever I hear the name Crispus Attucks mentioned.
I don't think I ever knew the backstory of the high school. Interesting and depressing, but not surprising.
If we are doing statues
Then why not William Dawes or Samuel Prescott? Paul Revere has govern way too much credit for so long, when Dawes and Prescott deserve their due.
Attucks already has something on the common. Dawes and Prescott deserve something.
There are bronze horseshoes
There are bronze horseshoes imbedded in the sidewalk in (The People's Republic of Cambridge) Harvard Square commemorating their famous ride.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/4864850464