We hope that you’ll consider joining us for the upcoming 6th Annual Quock Walker Day Community Celebration at the Lexington Visitors Center Lawn, 1875 Massachusetts Ave, Lexington, MA on Saturday, July 11. This year’s opening ceremony includes a selection by the William Diamond Junior Fife and Drum Corps and a keynote address by Kimberly S. Budd, 38th Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
ABCL’s 6th annual community celebration also includes a reading of Governor Healey’s Quock Walker Day proclamation, live music and dancing from Ghana and several interactive exhibits to allow you to examine and experience the lives of free, enslaved, and indentured Black residents of Colonial Lexington.
Background
In 1781, Quock Walker declared himself free and refused to return to slavery. A few weeks later his former enslaver assaulted him and tried to reenslave him. In response, Quock Walker took him to civil court and won 50 pounds in damages!
This audacious man and his judicial victories in civil court inspired the Massachusetts Attorney General to indict Nathaniel Jennison, Jr., Yeoman Walker’s former enslaver, for criminal assault. Chief Justice William Cushing, 1st Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, noted that the guilty verdict in 1783 case ended slavery in Massachusetts.
A free event.
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