The Museum of African American History, which was founded in 1964 by Sue Bailey Thurman (1903-96), acquired the neighboring African Meeting House (see below) in 1972. Among its former directors was Ruth Batson (1921-2003), a leading civil rights activist in Boston. She was chairperson of the education committee of the Boston NAACP that led the fight in the early 1960s against segregation in the Boston Public Schools and a founder and later director of the METCO voluntary desegregation program.
The Abiel Smith School (see above) served African American children from 1835 to 1855 until the state legislature passed an act allowing them to attend the school closest to their homes. The change was prompted by the actions of Benjamin Roberts, an African American, who sued the city in 1848 stating that his daughter Sarah Roberts was unlawfully refused entrance to five schools between her home and the Smith School. Although Roberts lost his case despite the help of prominent abolitionists, his actions had the long-term effect of opening all Boston Public Schools to African American children.
Eliza Ann Gardner (1831-1922) led the way among Black churchwoman as they sought political power and advocated for equal rights in their churches focusing on changing church law and building community. Living in Boston most of her life, Gardner attended the Smith School, and worked as a dressmaker and ran a boarding house. She was active in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, founded the Zion Missionary Society of New England, and was instrumental in the church allowing women to be ordained as ministers. She was an active abolitionist and suffragist and was a founding member with Josephine St Pierre Ruffin of the Woman’s Era Club.
