Black Women Legacies in Massachusetts
Sun, Feb 15
|North Andover Historical Society
This program is Free and is presented by the North Andover African American History Committee, and is supported by a grant from the North Andover Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
Time & Location
Feb 15, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
North Andover Historical Society, 800 Massachusetts Ave, North Andover, MA 01845, USA
About the event
Dr. Alexandria Russell will highlight African American women memorials drawing from her book, Black Women Legacies: Public History Sites Seen & Unseen. Local communities have been fervent memorializers of African American achievement in the United States for centuries, and Dr. Russell reveals how they established a national infrastructure of named memorials during the Jim Crow era. She will also discuss how local advocacy has shaped the public history landscape in Massachusetts and beyond through commemorations of women like Phillis Wheatley and Harriet Tubman. The centennial celebration of the founding of Negro History Week (now Black History Month) by Carter G. Woodson in 1926 and America 250 commemorations are timely reminders of the importance of documenting and disseminating the African American experience for current and future generations.