FEBRUARY 15 1848
On
February 15-1848, one hundred and seventy-one years ago, in Boston,
Massachusetts, a five-year-old African American girl named Sarah Roberts was
barred from attending any of the nearby White schools. The five-year-old child
had to walk past five whites only primary schools on her way to the Smith
Grammar School designated for African American students. Her father, Benjamin
Roberts, was dissatisfied with the condition and the quality of the Smith
Grammar School and tried four times unsuccessfully to enroll her in one of the
schools closer to their home. Benjamin Roberts decided to file suit on behalf
of his daughter Sarah Roberts. He enlisted the help of Robert Morris, a
prominent African American lawyer in Boston.
A
year later, Roberts v. The City of Boston came before Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw
of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled in
favour of the defense. Shaw ruled that racial prejudice was “not created by
law, and probably cannot be changed by law” and that segregation of public
schools was legally permitted by the US Constitution. Other Southern state
supreme courts followed the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. This was the
legal precedent which led to the “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessy v.
Ferguson in 1896.
This
law remained in place until the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,
Kansas case. The Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1954 was the
landmark Supreme Court decision which declared the segregation of African
American and white students in public schools was unconstitutional.
Slavery
was abolished in Massachusetts on July 18-1783. Formerly enslaved Africans in
Massachusetts although legally free continued being relegated to an inferior
social position, without civil rights. They could not serve on juries and
although they paid taxes, were prevented from voting and their children were
prevented from attending public schools. African American parents protested
having to pay taxes which supported public schools that their children were not
allowed to attend. Although free, African Americans were restricted in their
employment options. They were mostly relegated to working as domestic servants
and as unskilled labourers.
In
spite of being free in Massachusetts, African Americans lived in fear of being
kidnapped and forced into slavery in another state. The 1850 Compromise allowed
California to enter the Union as a "free" state, prohibited the slave
trade in the District of Columbia and established the Utah and New Mexico
territories. The Compromise of 1850 also led to the passing of the Fugitive
Slave Act. The Fugitive Slave Act allowed white people to recapture “runaway
slaves” in any state. All African Americans were at risk of being enslaved,
even if they lived in a Northern state where slavery had been abolished.
In 1850, Shadrach Minkins arrived in Boston after
escaping slavery in Virginia. He was captured by United States marshals under
the Fugitive Slave Act. On February 15-1851, Shadrach Minkins was rescued from a
courtroom in Boston by a group of African Americans living in Boston, who hid
him and helped him get to Canada through the Underground Railroad. Two men were
prosecuted in Boston for helping to free Minkins, but they were acquitted.
Minkins settled in Montreal, Canada where slavery had been abolished since
August 1-1834. Thomas Sims was an African American who escaped from slavery in
Georgia and fled to Boston, Massachusetts in 1851. He was arrested the same
year under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, had a court hearing, and was forced
to return to enslavement. Sims was one of the first to be forcibly returned
from Boston under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Sims fled to freedom in 1863
at the height of the Civil War (April 12-1861 to 1865.)
Anthony
Burns was 19 years old when he fled from slavery in Stafford County, Virginia to
Boston in 1853. He was captured in 1854 under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
and tried in court. His case attracted national publicity, including large
protest demonstrations. Federal troops escorted Burns to a ship where he was transported
back to Virginia and enslavement.
