Massachusetts Historical Society & Sponsors Online Public Program

Tonight! Thurs, Feb. 18th • 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.

The Confronting Racial Injustice Series offers five monthly programs hosted by the Massachusetts Historical Society and Northeastern University Law School’s Criminal Justice Task Force, sponsored by a number of Boston area organizations. Massachusetts is often heralded as the home of the abolition movement and one of the first states to abolish slavery. Yet from the 17th century to the 21st, slavery has been central to creating wealth and generating race-based inequality in

Massachusetts. Family fortunes, institutional endowments, and public budgets in the commonwealth have all benefitted from the spoils of slavery. This series explores how enslavement and white supremacy shaped the history of Massachusetts and how they continue to shape its present

This panel discussion between academic and public historians explores Massachusetts’s connections to slavery and the slave trade, the wealth – and the poverty – slavery created and bequeathed, and how the legacies of slavery are reflected in injustices that haunt Massachusetts to this day.

Panelists include Robbins House Advisor Elon Cook Lee, National Trust for Historic Preservation and Nicole Maskiell, University of South Carolina. The discussion will be moderated by Jared Ross Hardesty, Western Washington University.