Around New England

Boston Mayor Names Researchers In $500,000 Search For City’s Ties To Slavery

January 25, 2024

The city of Boston has hired two teams of researchers to document the city’s historical ties to slavery and its effects and to provide a report for the city’s Reparations Task Force.

One team consists of Kerri Greenidge, a professor at Tufts University; Kendra Field, also a professor at Tufts; and Kyera Singleton, executive director of the Royall House and Slave Quarters, a historic site in Medford. That group is supposed to study the years 1620 to 1940, according to a press release.

The second team is a coalition at Northeastern Univesity led by a professor, Margaret Burnham, and Deborah Jackson, managing director of the university’s Center for Law, Equity, and Race. The team includes other members, including (“but not limited to,” says the press release) Ted Landsmark, a professor; Donna Bivens, described in the press release as a “community leader”; and Richard O’Bryant, director of the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute. Hat group is supposed to study 1940 to the present.

“I’m grateful to these teams of historians who will serve our city by documenting Boston’s role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the myriad legacies of slavery that continue to impact the daily lives of our city’s communities,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said, according to the press release.

The budget for that the city calls the “comprehensive research effort” is $500,000, which comes from federal stimulus funds and the city’s operating budget.

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