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| SE5:
Harriet Tubman House and United South End Settlements 566 Columbus Avenue This site honors Harriet Tubman (1820-1913). Born into slavery (her real name was Araminta), Tubman escaped in 1839 and lived most of her life in New York. But she went back to slave territory 19 times, risking her life to lead over 300 slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad and earning her the title "Black Moses." Poet Eloise Greenfield wrote, "Harriet Tubman didn't take no stuff, wasn't scared of nothing neither." The site was the first settlement house in the United States (1891). Besides housing a day care center and other services, Harriet Tubman House has photos and exhibits on Harriet's life. (See also B12.) |
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SE6: Harriet Tubman Park In 1999, a 10-foot bronze sculpture that honors Underground Railroad "conductor" Harriet Tubman was dedicated. Step on Board is the first statue on city property recognizing an African American woman and the first on city-owned property honoring a woman. Created by sculptor Fern Cunningham, this powerful work of art is the focus of the newly-renovated Harriet Tubman Park. Cunningham, an art teacher who lives in Dorchester, spent three years creating the statue of the physically small woman whose words "galvanized abolitionists, both black and white" according to the Boston Globe, and whose courageous actions saved the lives of hundreds. (See SE5.) The Park also contains Emancipation by Meta Warrick Fuller (1877-1968), a leading artist of the Harlem Renaissance whose thematic interests included feminism, peace, African American history, dance, theater and familial subjects. |
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SE7: E. Virginia Williams and The Boston Ballet 19 Clarendon Street There would be no Boston Ballet without E. Virginia Williams (1914-63), its founder (in 1963) and artistic director. She began dance lessons at age seven to help overcome shyness. For the first six months of her lessons, she would not even get up from her chair! But she was performing by age 12, and went on to become an outstanding and beloved teacher and imaginative choreographer. The Boston Ballet is the fourth largest professional ballet company in the nation. |
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SE8: Home of Louisa May Alcott Peters Park, Shawmut Avenue and Dwight Street Before
it was a park, this site was Groton Street, a home of Louisa May Alcott
(1832-88), one of America's most famous authors. Alcott's best known book
is Little Women. She was also a nurse during the Civil War. Alcott probably
would like Peters Park. Like Jo in Little Women, she loved to play and
have fun. |
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