This is site 7 - 9 of 17 Next "B" Site Return to beginning of Beacon Hill
		B7: African Meeting House 8 Smith Court (now also the Museum of Afro American History) Among women abolitionists active in this church before the Civil War was Maria Stewart (1803-1879) who challenged other free African American women: "O, ye daughters of Africa, awake! Awake! Arise! No longer sleep nor slumber, but distinguish yourselves. Show forth to the world that ye are endowed with noble and exalted faculties." The church was built in 1805-1806 in the heart of Boston's African American community on the north slope of Beacon Hill. Susan Paul (see B14), whose father was the minister, joined other African American women to form a temperance society in the 1830s. Escaped slaves William and Ellen Craft (1826-1897) were active in abolition meetings here (see B12). The Smith School, at the corner of Smith Court, was the impetus for Boston's first successful desegregation case in 1855. The Museum of Afro American History, which was founded in 1964 by Sue Bailey Thurman (1903-1996), owns the Meeting House and is also located in Smith Court. Thurman's portrait hangs just inside the museum's main door. "O, ye daughters of Africa! What have ye done to immortalize your names beyond the grave? What examples have ye set before the rising generations? What foundation have ye laid for the generations yet unborn? Where are our union and love? And where is our sympathy, that weeps at another's woe and hides the faults we see?" -- Maria Stewart
		B8: Home of Rebecca Lee Crumpler 67 Joy Street Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831-1895) is considered to be the first African American woman doctor. She received a "Doctress of Medicine" in 1864 from the New England Female Medical College in Boston's South End, later merged into the Boston University School of Medicine. Born in Delaware, Crumpler was raised in Pennsylvania by an aunt. She came to Charlestown in 1852 where she worked as a nurse. After she received her degree, she practiced in post Civil War Virginia. With her husband, Dr. Arthur Crumpler, she next moved back to Boston where she set up her medical practice on Joy Street. She focused on women and children and emphasized nutrition and preventive medicine. She pulled together her experiences and knowledge in A Book of Medical Discourses in Two Parts.
		B9: Home for Aged Colored Females 22 Hancock Street Established on Beacon Hill in 1860 at the beginning of the Civil War by both African American and white abolitionists, the home provided old-age housing for women who were ex-slaves as well as for Black women from Boston's free Black community who had lived and worked in Boston. The home was moved to this site in 1901 and continued here into the 1920s.