This commentary piece of mine appeared in the Newton (Mass.) Tab on February 24, 2021

During Black History Month in February, we focus on the contributions of Black Americans to the American story. However, by confining our attention to one month out of the year, we risk ignoring those contributions the rest of the year. The truth is, Black history is an integral part of American history — we should recognize at all times how intertwined it is with that history. This recognition is essential to overcoming the persistent racism we are still contending with, both locally and as a nation.

I was not born a New Englander — I grew up in a small West Virginia town called Nitro. It is predominantly white — there were no Black classmates in my grade school in the 1960s. I never thought much about how Black history might have affected my little community, and I certainly never imagined we had any connection to slavery. I suspect my history education was typical of what schoolchildren learned all over the country — an avoidance and glossing over of the history of inequity and systemic racism that has plagued our country since the beginning.

It was only relatively recently that I learned that before the Civil War, the future site of Nitro was host to the Bolling farm, owned by the largest slave holder in the Kanawha Valley. If I had known this when I was growing up there, it would have transformed my understanding of my community and encouraged me to take more responsibility for challenging the status quo.

I have always tried to acquaint myself with the history of every community I live in. So when I moved to Newton in the mid-1990s, I began studying the history here. I discovered slavery was not only an issue in the South. An 1889 compilation of wills and death records from 1681 – 1802, and subsequent research, showed 45 enslaved people were owned in Newton during that period, a figure that is believed to represent only a small fraction of the actual number enslaved here, according to Historic Newton. And it’s well known that New England industrialists had a symbiotic relationship with the Southern growers whose cotton they processed in their mills.

Despite its connections to the slave-based economy, Newton produced many examples of anti-slavery activism and striving for equality. Many local citizens were leaders in the abolition movement. The city was the site of two stations on the Underground Railroad that sheltered escaped enslaved persons. Nathaniel Allen, a prominent Newton abolitionist, founded a model school in 1854 that welcomed racial and gender diversity.

It was this reputation as an abolitionist center that undoubtedly drew many Black migrants from the South to the Garden City after the Civil War. Newton became home to the largest suburban Black community in the Greater Boston area. Its spiritual home is Myrtle Baptist Church on Curve Street, which from its earliest years nurtured many leaders in Newton’s efforts to become more inclusive.

But as relatively progressive as Newton was, it still participated in the racially discriminatory patterns that held sway throughout much of the 20^th century and up to the present. When the Mass Turnpike extension sliced through West Newton in the early 1960s, the neighborhood around Myrtle Baptist was especially hard hit. Renters and homeowners whose dwellings were taken had a hard time buying or renting homes in the city, and many were steered by real estate agents to inner city locations far from the leafy suburb they called home.

As recently as last June, Newton was the site of a painful racial profiling incident, as police officers seeking a suspect confronted a Black former Northeastern University employee who owns a home in Newton. One of the officers had a gun drawn during the incident, police confirmed. Incidents like this perpetuate Black citizens’ feeling they are not fully accepted here.

So, as we confront the continuing reality of discrimination, let us look to a more inclusive and wholistic understanding of our history to guide us. It’s true that Newton has taken part in many of the shameful aspects of the past and continues to be affected by them. But we also have in the activism of many past and current citizens an abiding commitment to change. We can draw strength from the legacy of the abolitionists, educational pioneers, and Black citizens and their allies who, more than a century and a half ago, envisioned a future of justice and equality.