For decades, a 1967 riot that rocked Roxburyâs Grove Hall neighborhood was generally referred to in the mainstream media as a ârace riotâ or as âthe welfare riot,â while a handful of articles and books by Black authors called it âthe police riot.â A group of mostly African American women who led an organization called Mothers for Adequate Welfare were staging a sit-in protest at a welfare office on Blue Hill Avenue. When tensions escalated, the police stormed in and used force to remove the group. Onlookers were outraged by the violence and attempted to stop the police. The resulting riot spanned three nights in Roxbury, with arson, looting, and shots fired both by and at the police, and the scars it left behind took decades to heal.
Tag: 20th Century
Hooker Day in Boston (episode 138)
Hooker Day was a one-time holiday celebrated in Boston in 1903.  While it might sound like this is going to be an X-rated podcast, weâre not talking about that kind of hooker. Civil War General Joseph âFighting Joeâ Hooker was briefly the commander of the main Union force called the Army of the Potomac.  Forty years after his command, he was immortalized with a massive statue in front of our State House. When the statue was dedicated, the entire city celebrated a holiday that was called Hooker Day in his honor.
Love is Love: John Adams and Marriage Equality (episode 134)
15 years ago, the landmark case Goodridge v. Department of Public Health granted marriage rights to same-sex couples in Massachusetts. The November 18, 2003, decision was the first by a U.S. stateâs highest court to find that same-sex couples had the right to marry, and it was grounded in the language of equal justice that John Adams wrote into our state constitution. Despite numerous attempts to delay the ruling, and to reverse it, the first marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples on May 17, 2004.
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Marathon Women (episode 127)
The Boston Marathon was first run in April of 1897, after Bostonians were inspired by the revival of the marathon for the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. It is the oldest continuously running marathon, arguably the most prestigious, and the second longest continuously running footrace in North America, having debuted five months after the Buffalo Turkey Trot. Women were not allowed to officially enter the Boston Marathon until 1972. Â In 1966, Bobbi Gibb became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon. In 1967, Kathrine Switzer, who had registered as âK. V. Switzerâ, became the first woman to run and finish with a race number â despite the race directorâs best efforts.
The Museum Heist (episode 126)
Itâs probably a familiar tale⊠Late at night, after the museum is closed, a man talks the guard into unlocking the door.  Once inside, he pulls out a gun, and within seconds, the guard is tied up and blindfolded, while a gang roams through the museum, picking out rare masterpieces.  By the time the guard gets himself free and calls the police, the gang has made off with millions of dollars in stolen artworks, in a case considered the largest art heist in US history.  Yes, the tale may sound familiar, but weâre not talking about the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum case, weâre talking about a different art heist, one that was carried out 17 years earlier and across the river in Cambridge. This is the story of the Fogg Museum coin heist.
The Little Glass Treasure House (episode 125)
Artist and author Julia Glatfelter joins us this week to discuss her upcoming childrenâs book The Little Glass Treasure House. The Childrenâs Art Centre was incorporated in 1914 under the direction of FitzRoy Carrington, curator of prints at the Museum of Fine Arts. When the building was completed in 1918 on Rutland Street in Bostonâs South End, it became the first art museum for children in the world. In 1959, the organization merged with 4 settlement houses to become United South End Settlements (USES). Julia taught at the Childrenâs Art Centre as part of the vacation arts program at USES in 2017, and during that time, she researched the history of the building, the evolution of its programs, and the people who brought the space to life. Her new book, The Little Glass Treasure House, narrates this story through the eyes of Charlotte Dempsey, who directed the center from 1930 to 1971.
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Weird Neighborhood History (episode 124)
Instead of writing and recording a new episode, your humble hosts are going to History Camp this weekend. Weâll leave you with two stories about Bostonâs weird neighborhood history from our back catalog.  Weâll be sharing a story from Jamaica Plain about a politically motivated crime in the early 20th century that led to a series of running gunfights between the police and what the newspapers called âdesperadoes.â  Then, weâre going to move across town to Brighton, which â speaking of desperadoes â used to be home to saloons, card games, and hard drinking cowboys, when it hosted New Englandâs largest cattle market.
“The Birth of a Nation” in Boston (episode 121)
âThe Birth of a Nationâ was one of the most controversial movies ever made, and when it premiered on February 8, 1915 it almost instantly became the greatest blockbuster of the silent movie era. Â It featured innovative new filmmaking techniques, a revolutionary score, and it was anchored by thrilling action scenes shot on a never-before-seen scale, with thousands of actors and extras, hundreds of horses, and battlefield effects like real cannons.
âBirth of a Nationâ was unapologetically racist, promoting white supremacy and glorifying the Ku Klux Klan as the noble, heroic saviors of white America from the villainous clutches of evil black men bent on rape and destruction. Â Upon the filmâs 50th anniversary in 1965, NAACP president Roy Wilkins proclaimed that all the progress that African Americans had made over the past half century couldnât outweigh the damage done by âBirth of a Nation.â
When the film debuted in Boston in April of 1915, audience reaction was split along racial lines, with white Bostonians flocking to see the movie in record numbers, while black Bostonians organized protests and boycotts, with leaders like William Monroe Trotter attempting to have it banned in Boston.
Continue reading âThe Birth of a Nationâ in Boston (episode 121)
Worst Case Scenarios (episode 118)
This weekâs show revisits three classic episodes about disasters in Boston history. Weâll start with episode 21, which spotlighted the 1897 subway explosion on Tremont Street. Episode 39 discusses the tragedy at the Cocoanut Grove, followed by episode 91 on the collapse of the Pickwick nightclub. They key takeaway this week? Â We should all be thankful for modern building codes, safety measures, and government oversight.
Boston Standard Time (episode 113)
With New Yearâs Eve comes the ball drop in Times Square at the stroke of midnight. Â But in the late 1800s, Boston dropped a ball every day to mark the stroke of noon, because telling the time was serious business. The time ball, along with telegraphic signals and fire alarm bells, announced the exact time to the public, at a time when the exact time was critical to navigation on the high seas and safety on the newfangled railroads. Â With ultra-precise clocks made by local jewelers and true astronomical time announced daily by the Harvard Observatory, Boston Standard Time became the de facto standard for a wide swath of the country long before time zones were officially proposed and adopted.