Feb 26, 2009 - Sale 2171

Sale 2171 - Lot 211

Price Realized: $ 2,040
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
DESEGREGATION IN 19TH-CENTURY BOSTON (EDUCATION.) NELL, WILLIAM C. Triumph of Equal School Rights in Boston. Proceedings of the Presentation Meeting, Held in Boston, Dec. 17, 1855 (cover title). 24 pages. Small 8vo, original printed wrappers, slightly soiled; old (1909) library stamp on the front cover; text clean, but loose in the covers. Boston: R. F. Walcutt, 1856

Additional Details

first edition. rare. Beginning in 1844, a group of Boston''s colored parents began to protest the quality of education in the segregated school system. In 1849, most African-American parents in Boston chose to remove their children from the segregated Abiel Smith School. Led by William C. Nell (1816-1874), and with the support of William Wells Brown and other prominent black Bostonians, they took the case to the courts. After nearly five years, the Massachusetts Legislature outlawed "separate schools." This pamphlet celebrates that success and prints an eleven page address by William C. Nell, who was presented with an "elegant gold watch." Other speeches printed here include those by Charles Lenox Remond, Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison. OCLC locates only one copy; not in the Blockson Collection or the Schomburg.