The Cambridge Black History Project celebrated on Nov. 8 its 100-plus-strong oral history project, “Lift Every Voice: Saving Our Stories, Sharing Our History.” As I’m the CBHP president, I was asked to review these interviews to prepare welcoming remarks. Listening to all the stories my fellow Black Cantabrigians told, I was filled with wonder and love for my community.
As a youngster, I was taught that if you were Black and from Cambridge you were from the same tribe. Listening to these oral histories, many from my contemporaries, I was sure I did indeed belong to a tribe.
I have researched and written extensively about Black Cantabrigians and realize that there are recurring themes that tie my community together. For instance, we share a unique history of being Black in a city renowned for its intellect and liberality. We are at home in each of Cambridge’s three Black communities. But we know that whether you are from “The Port,” “The Coast” or that tiny village on the city’s west side referred to erroneously as North Cambridge, we are bound together. We have a mutual dependency on one another for our growth, safety and prosperity. We have an awareness of each other’s triumphs and defeats and look to each other for support.
We stay in contact with one another through our organizations, civic activities and churches, and together have fought our marginalization, brought about by the many types of discrimination this city had and has to offer.
The resiliency of my tribe and our complicated relationship with Cambridge – a city our families have inhabited for generations – was on display Nov. 8. The city has given us many opportunities and has shown remorse in many ways. My family has been honored by the city naming a park after my uncle, Clement Morgan, and a street after my aunt. Gertrude Wright Morgan. I am not the only Black Cantabrigian to have experienced Cambridge’s remorse and good intentions.
I use the term “Black Cantabrigians” repeatedly, and unconsciously began using “Blackabrigian” as a type of shorthand, and I thought I would put this forward as our tribe’s name. I figured I would make a bunch of T-shirts, and it might just catch on. We’ll see.
I can’t begin to explain just how proud I am of our tribe. Our accomplishments are far too many to list, but here’s a sample.
Blackabrigian soldiers fought in every one of America’s wars, including the Revolutionary War. Our tribe members have distinguished themselves in athletics, music, medicine, law, education and so on. You name a career, and a Blackabrigian has performed exceptionally in it.
Our tribe – a community of “ordinary” people that has stood behind and helped shape the accomplishments of our extraordinary members – has produced many firsts, among them:
- Joyce London Alexander, the first Black person appointed chief magistrate judge in the United States
- Roy Allen, the first Black member of the Director’s Guild of America
- Charles Leroy Gittens, the first Black Secret Service agent
- Patrick H. Raymond, the first Black fire chief in the nation
- John Thomas, the first man in the world to high-jump more than 7 feet indoors
Our tribe even includes members from our more distant past, those our research has recently uncovered, such as Charles Lenox, whose loans financed Harvard professors and white Cambridge merchants and builders in the early 1800s.
A hundred public events could never completely tell the story of the Blackabrigian tribe, but Nov. 8 was a joyous snapshot of a landscape impossible for most Cantabrigians to imagine. I couldn’t be more proud.
Our tribe, like tribes that have preceded us, is dwindling and may one day be just a footnote in Cambridge’s history. But we are leaving behind our stories. We will not be forgotten again.
James Spencer is president of The Cambridge Black History Project.
About The Author
