North to Boston

Recommended. General readers and undergraduates. * Choice * Drawing on the life stories of men and women of a Roxbury church, Gumprecht offers a much-needed window on southern Black migration to Boston. Filling a glaring gap in the city's African American history, these stories vividly recount how migrants negotiated the transition from the segregated South to the urban North just as the country was grappling with the momentous changes spurred by the civil rights movement. * Marilynn S. Johnson, Author of The New Bostonians: How Immigrants Have Transformed the Metro Area Since the 1960s * Boston's Black population grew from 23,000 in 1940 to 104,000 in 1970. The published histories of Black Boston have focused on statistical indicators and on the stories of its famous and remarkable individuals. The vast majority-the people who make it a community-are almost never named. This volume begins to change that emphasis. Let us hope that these studies of 10 ordinary people are the beginning of extraordinary studies of the majority of Black folk in Boston and elsewhere. * Byron Rushing, Former President, Museum of African American History * North to Boston tells the important stories of ten of the tens of thousands of African Americans who were part of a till-now unexplored migration from the South to a northern city. Through the greater freedom and opportunity that they found and the work ethic and faith that they brought, these ten people built better lives and helped make 'cold roast Boston' a richer and warmer place. * Jim Vrabel, Author of A People's History of the New Boston * In this fine, detailed treatment of 10 individuals who migrated north, readers learn of the paradoxes of the migration and the subsequent experiences of living in the North. Moving north did not mean leaving behind racist discrimination, lack of economic opportunity, or even violence. The supposedly progressive Boston, where 19th-century abolitionists protected fleeing enslaved persons in the elite Brahmin enclave of Beacon Hill, was not what many experienced, and they suffered also from the disdain of the earlier settled Black population. Most of the stories...are positive, proud stories of carving out a solid life in Boston, raising families, working hard, gaining the respect of their peers, and leading lives of faith. Recommended. * Choice *