Black History Month 2021 -

The Museum, Town of Marblehead, and the organizations and individuals listed below recognize the importance of the history of People of Color to Marblehead and the U.S. and believe that conversations on these topics should take place year round, not just in January and February. Please stay informed by following/liking them on social media, signing up for their newsletters, and supporting their work.

If you have an event to add to this listing, please email info@marbleheadmuseum.org. This site will be updated regularly. Check back soon for more events.

Joseph & Lucretia Brown and the Inclusive History Project

The lives of colonial-era residents of Marblehead, Massachusetts Lucretia and Joseph Brown are getting increased attention. The School Committee voted on February 4 to name a school after them. Details about their lives are being researched and published by Marblehead Racial Justice Team (MRJT), Marblehead Museum and others. Now, MRJT has released a video depicting key features about them and how meaningful their lives were as African Americans who gained respect in an otherwise bleak era for Black people in New England. The video runs three and a half minutes and presents interesting facts and images, about both the couple and their environment two hundred years ago.

This is the first installment in a planned series of historical vignettes about Marblehead called The Inclusive History Project. This series brings to life the experiences of persons of color in the town and events that impacted them.

A Conversation with Lou Meyi and Chief Robert Picariello

Marblehead’s rich history is on display this Black History Month 2021. Hear snippets of the story by listening in on the conversations of Lou Meyi and Chief Robert Picariello, and check out the cool features coming your way this February 2021!

“Overlooked Too Long: Women of Color and the Struggle for Suffrage”

2020 was the 100th anniversary of the struggle for suffrage in which women were finally granted the right to vote with passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. But upon close examination of history it becomes apparent that only the white woman was allowed to vote. In an attempt to set the story straight, the Marblehead League of Women Voters examines this misleading and white supremacist history in their 1 hour presentation of the valiant and near impossible efforts met by women of color.

The Meetinghouse Series: “Reconstruction: American After the Civil War”

From 2pm to 4pm on all four Sunday afternoons in February, join us to view four fascinating one-hour films, Reconstruction: America After the Civil War. At the end of each film, you will be able to share your thoughts with other viewers via Zoom. The creator of this remarkable series is Harvard scholar, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. We will explore the tumultuous period at the end of the Civil War during which 750,000 Americans lost their lives. We will also see how the aftermath required not only physical repair of the states ravaged by fighting but also a reckoning with the social and political revolution created by freeing previously enslaved people.

“Agnes, The Enslaved Woman Interred at Old Burial Hill Cemetery”

Mabel Sliney, Marblehead High School senior and student representative to MTFAD, filmed an interview with local pastor James Bixby, local activist Judy Gates, and local historian Louis Meyi, about Agnes’ gravestone, which serves “as a reminder of a time when there was slavery in New England.” The Marblehead Racial Justice Team is spearheading a fundraiser to have her gravestone refurbished and proper signage erected to educate visitors to Old Burial Hill.

Donate HERE to help the Marblehead Racial Justice Team Restore Agnes’s Gravestone.

“The Terrible Power of the Constitution’s Three-Fifth Clause,” A lecture presented by Richard Bell, Ph.D.

Join University of Maryland historian Richard Bell for a deep dive into the darkest corners of the 1787 federal Constitution and its infamous Three-Fifths Clause [counting enslaved people as 3/5 of a free individual for purposes of congressional representation – learn more]. Far more insidious than is commonly understood, the Three-Fifths Clause wove slaveholder power into the fabric of each of all three branches of government-executive, legislative, and judicial-shaping every aspect of federal policy regarding slavery for decades to come.

Dr. Richard Bell is Professor of History at the University of Maryland. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and is author of the new book Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and their Astonishing Odyssey Home which is shortlisted for the George Washington Prize and the Harriet Tubman Prize. He serves as a Trustee of the Maryland Center for History and Culture, as an elected member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and as a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Learn more HERE.

Digital Resources about Black, Indigenous and People of Color

Black History Month Programming

Monday, February 1 at 7:30 PM

Tuesday, February 2 at 3 PM

Tuesday, February 9 at 7:30 PM

Wednesday, February 10 at 3 PM

Wednesday, February 17 at 9:30 PM

Thursday, February 18 at 12:30 PM

Friday, February 19 at 3 PM

Thursday, February 25 at 3 PM

Friday, February 26 at 7:30 PM

Tuesday, February 2 at 7:30 PM

Wednesday, February 3 at 3 PM

Friday, February 12 at 7:30 PM

Monday, February 15 at 3 PM

Monday, February 22 at 9:30 PM

Tuesday, February 23 at 3 PM

Saturday, February 20 at 7 PM

Thursday, February 4 at 12:30 PM

Tuesday, February 9 at 9:30 PM

Tuesday, February 16 at 3 PM

Friday, February 26 at 9:30 PM

Monday, February 1 at 3 PM

Monday, February 8 at 9:30 PM

Tuesday, February 9 at 3 PM

Tuesday, February 16 at 9:30 PM

Wednesday, February 17 at 3 PM

Monday, February 22 at 3 PM

Friday, February 5 at 3 PM

Monday, February 8 at 3 PM

Friday, February 12 at 9:30 PM

Monday, February 15 at 7:30 PM

Tuesday, February 23 at 9:30 PM

Sunday, February 28 at 7 PM

Saturday, February 27 at 7 PM