Quock Walker Day celebrates the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision of July 8, 1783, that found a White enslaver guilty of assault on Quock Walker, a freedom seeking Black man, and agreed with Chief Justice Cushing that the ideas of slavery and perpetual servitude were incompatible with the state constitution.
Community Celebration Main Stage
11 AM – Opening Ceremony
12 pm -West African Dance Workshopwith Crocodile River Music
Learn and practice steps from traditional West African dances, while dancing to live musical accompaniment provided by members of the CRM team. This high-energy experience is engaging and educational for people of all ages, backgrounds and capabilities.
1 pm – Crocodile River Music Concert
Dance to music performed by musicians from Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Guinea, & the US
Food and Drink
Jamaica Mi Hungry – food truck
Clarke’s Cakes & Cookies, LLC
Family and Freedom: Colonial Massachusetts to Civil War
Barbadoes of Lexington: From Emancipation to Abolition – Learn about an enslaved couple who were married in Lexington and whose descendants fought for the abolition of slavery across the country.
Yeomen Burdoos of Lexington – Hear how a 40 acre homestead supported a tax paying Black family of Cambridge Farms
Processing Flax into Linen with Cate and Prince Chester – Flax was cultivated in the Nile Delta by the Egyptians in 5,000 BC. Learn how an emancipated couple of Lexington supplemented their income by processing flax into linen.
Hands-On Flax Processing Demonstration with Michelle Parrish, School and Family Programs Coordinator, Historic Deerfield
Lexington Minute Men – Meet some of the men whose valor during the Revolutionary War allowed for the Commonwealth to ratify its constitution in 1780. Members of the Barbadoes and Burdoo families were veterans of the Revolutionary War.
Cambridge Black History Project – Hear the stories Quock Walker’s nieces and nephews who fought for civil rights, worked on the Underground Railroad and fought for the abolition of slavery across the USA.
Salem United, Inc. – Learn how the emancipation of Cumono in 1783, led to his grandson Robert Morris becoming a member of the Massachusetts Bar in 1847.
54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company A– Meet some of the men whose valor during the Civil War led to the surrender of Confederate forces and the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation by the occupation of the defeated Confederate States of America. Some Burdoos and Walker Lewis descendants were veterans of the Civil War.
Colonial Games
Celebration Partners
54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company A
Cambridge Black History Project
First Parish in Lexington
Follen Church
Hancock United Church of Christ
LexFarm
Lexington Historical Society
Salem United, Inc.
William Diamond Junior Fife and Drum Corps
To learn more about this year’s celebration CLICK HERE.
WHY: The Parent Academy is designed to educate and empower parents and caregivers to manage the changing demands of parenting in today’s world, this is a free event for all interested Parents, Caregivers, Educators and Community Members.
For Food Donations and Volunteer Sign-up:Sign up here
SPONSORED BY: The Lexington Public Schools SHAC (School Health Advisory Council), Town of Lexington Human Services dept., Town of Lexington Recreation dept., ABCL (Association of Black Citizens of Lexington), BALex (Bangladeshi Americans of Lexington), CAAL (Chinese American Association of Lexington), CALex (Chinese Americans of Lexington), Human Rights Committee, IAL (Indian Americans of Lexington), JPLex (Japan Support Group of Lexington), LexFun (Lexington’s 5-and-under Network), Lexington Community Coalition,LexPride, LexSeeHer,LexSEPTA (Lexington Special Education PTA), LHS PTO, PPC (PTO Presidents Council), andNew Legacy Cultural Center.
Although registration is not required we encourage you to register to secure a space in the workshops you are interested in attending. Several of the workshops have limited spaces.
Please contact Julie Fenn, Assistant Coordinator of PE, Health and Wellness with any questions.
COME CELEBRATE DOUGLASS DAY 2024! Where: Lexington Depot, 13 Depot Square, Lexington MA 02420 Registration: Visit https://lexlyceum.org/douglass-day For more info: Contact Kerry Dunne, History & Social Studies Dept. Head kdunne@lexingtonma.org There will be FREE FOOD!
National transcribe-a-thon featuring the letters of Frederick Douglass
Large Meeting Room, Cary Memorial Library, 1874 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, MA, 02420
Join us for a screening of Beyond Their Years, a compelling story of parallel lives lived by sports and social justice icons, Herb Carnegie and Buck O’Neil. A conversation and Q&A with the film’s producer, Bryant McBride will follow.
Sponsored by the Lexington Lyceum Advocates, the Association of Black Citizens of Lexington (ABCL), and the Lexington Historical Society
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Blight will explore Frederick Douglass’s role as a prose poet of democracy, from his transformation as an advocate of the proslavery Constitution to the antislavery Constitution in the 1850s and how he interpreted the revolutionary transformations of emancipation and Reconstruction.
David Blight is Sterling Professor of History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. He is the author of several highly acclaimed books, including Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory and Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, which won the Pulitzer Prize for history.
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom will be available for sale and signing at the event.
Please click here to purchase your tickets to ABCL’s 2024 MLK Day Concert on Sunday, January 14, 2024 at 2 pm at Follen Community Church. You’ll be inspired to build a better tomorrow by the songs that inspired the Civil Rights Movement and the stories of Dr. King’s membership in Alpha Phi Alpha, a Black Greek-letter fraternity.
The tribute to Dr. King and the civil rights movement will feature spirituals and freedom songs performed by a choir led by Dennis L. Slaughter, EdM, DLP. Borther Dennis is founding director of the Boston Community Choir and artistic director of the Boston Pops Orchestra Gospel Choir.
Your guides through the Legacy of Pledging Alpha Phi Alpha include Michelle Ridgley, Lexington native who’s uncle was a linemate of Dr. King, and James Hoyte, Lexington resident and fellow Alpha who also pledged Sigma Chapter.
Tickets – $25 general admission
Proceeds support the ABCL Scholarship Fund.
This concert is ABCL’s 2024 Black History Portrait Banners Concert.
Invite your neighbors and friends to buy their tickets now to this celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Sunday, January 14, 2024 at 2pm at Follen Community Church.
ABCL’s Black History Portrait Banners honor trailblazers who have contributed to Lexington and American history and culture over the last four centuries.
This year’s banner honorees are two former Lexington residents
Kate Barbadoes – Perseverance in the 18th Century: baptized with her husband in Lexington in 1754, their three children were baptized in Lexington in 1755 and 1756, widowed in 1757 when her husband Quawk died. Come hear more about her story and the ripple effect that she had on the Revolutionary War and abolition movement. .
John Henry Brown – Reestablishing Black Residency in the 19th Century: enslaved in Maryland, self-emancipated in 1862, Civil War veteran, resident of Lexington from 1860s to 1920. Come here more about his story and how he became a pillar of the community with a pension.
Doors open at 6:30 for socializing with appetizers and drinks
There will also be an opportunity to take pictures with the portrait banners after the program.
Join Boston Public Quartet & Lexington High School Chamber Orchestra for an uplifting classical afternoon celebrating pioneering composer, pianist & teacher Florence B. Price. Buy your tickets now!
