FEBRUARY 15-1848 BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS

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.