“The time for the separation of the races has come.”
– Reverend Henry J. Duckrey
”The persistence of segregation led to protest. Some in the black community sought greater economic independence or outright separation.
Aaron Molyneaux Hewlett
Aaron Molyneaux Hewlett, of Worcester, became director of the Harvard College Gymnasium and served from 1859 to 1871. Despite the Harvard connection he experienced and protested discrimination at a Cambridge skating rink and at a theater. His son Emanuel became the fi rst African-American lawyer to win a U. S. Supreme Court case but also suffered discrimination as shown in a Washington Post article from 1907.
Aaron M. Hewlett
Hewlett is surrounded by period equipment including a medicine ball, boxing gloves, and dumbbells.
- Harvard University
Hewlett petition
In 1866 Aaron Molyneaux Hewlett petitioned that “any Theatre, or place of public amusement, that shall without reasonable cause, exclude colored persons, shall thereby forfeit its license.”
- Massachusetts Archives
Cambridge Chronicle
The Cambridge Chronicle reported on Hewlett’s experience attempting to enter a segregated skating rink.
- Cambridge Public Library
Loans for the black community
Seeking fairness and self-sufficiency, Hewlett incorporated the Cambridge Land and Building Association in 1868 to provide loans to members of the black community.
- Massachusetts Archives
Father and Son:
A Common Experience As an attorney practicing before the U.S. Supreme Court, Emanuel Molyneaux Hewlett was eligible for admission to a court house lunch room. Protest by white attorneys closed the room which had been “a great convenience to the lawyers especially during bad weather.” A rule change banned lawyers - like Emanuel Hewlett - who were not also members of the District Bar Association and the room reopened.
Disillusionment
As pastor of the Mount Olive Baptist Church in Cambridge, Reverend Henry Duckrey favored a northern migration of southern blacks for a better life. In 1903 the Cambridge Tribune reported on his candidacy for the School Committee. Opponents raised “the partisan cry of ‘Save our schools’ which he interpreted to mean, save our schools from people of his own race.” Disillusioned by 1915, he advocated separation and planned “a ‘jitney bus’ service...for the use of colored people.” Shortly after that announcement, he left Massachusetts for Philadelphia.
- Cambridge Public Library
- Reverend Henry J. Duckrey on the need for an independent bus line.