Breakthroughs in Basic American Rights
1. First Town Meeting (1633):
The earliest instance of a regularized system of gatherings in
America
2. Massachusetts Constitution (1780): Written
by John Adams, and widely recognized as being the oldest functioning
written constitution in the world, this document informed the
Federal Constitution with its Bill of Rights and separation of
the three branches of government
3. Massachusetts is the First State to Abolish
Slavery (1783)
4. Founding of the Abolitionist Movement (1828): In Boston’s
North End with David Walker’s antislavery pamphlet Walker’s
Appeal
5. First Free Black Regiment in Union Army (1863):
The 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry is created—led
by the young white Colonel Robert Gould Shaw
6. The First Journal of the Suffrage Movement
(1869): A women’s rights weekly called the Woman’s
Journal is launched by Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and Josephine
Ruffin and their American Woman Suffrage Association, becoming
the leading voice for women’s suffrage
7. The Refugee Movement (1914): The first aid
program for refugees in the United States is organized in Boston
to help the starving Armenian survivors of a Turkish (Ottoman)
ethnic cleansing campaign
Breakthroughs in Education
8. First School in the British Colonies (1635):
Boston Latin becomes the first school in the British Colonies
and is followed in 1647 by the decree that every town of 50 families
should have an elementary school and every town of 100 families
should have a Latin school
9. First Sunday School (1818): Park Street Church
on the Boston Common
10. First Free Public School for African Americans
(1835): The Abiel Smith School is constructed on Beacon Hill in
1834 becoming the first schoolhouse in America built to educate
Black school children
11. First Free Public Library in a Major City (1848): The Boston
Public Library is established by the city
12. Compulsory Education Instituted (1852): A
law is passed to ensure that the children of poor immigrants are
educated and that working conditions for children are improved
13. The First Legally Integrated School (1855):
The Abiel Smith School closes and the Phillips School becomes
the first formally integrated public school as the result of a
Black parent legal suit brought against
segregation in the public schools
14. First English Speaking Kindergarten (1860):
Elizabeth Peabody introduces this new approach to educating young
children in a program in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood
15. North Bennet Street Industrial School (1881):
America’s first trade school is founded by Pauline Agassiz
Shaw to train newly arrived immigrants in skilled trades
16. Facing History and Ourselves (1976): This
organization is founded in Brookline by a group of teachers committed
to helping students find meaning and guidance through studying
the past
17. The Boston Compact (1982): A pact to improve
public education is established among private industry, the Boston
Public Schools, and several nonprofits, becoming a national model
for urban school improvement
18. Boston Plan for Excellence in Public Schools
(1984): The Massachusetts Education Reform Act establishes accountability
for school systems, teachers, and students—tying state funding
to improvements by each school system and requiring high school
students to pass an exam before graduating
19. Modern Education Reform (1993): Through the
Massachusetts Education Reform Act, state funding for schools
is tied to accountability on the part of the school system, teachers,
and students
20. Pilot Schools (1994): In response to the popularity
of charter schools, this unique agreement between the Boston Public
Schools and the Boston Teachers Union sets the framework for some
Boston public schools to
operate under special contract provisions that encourage educational
innovation
21. Boston Schoolyard Initiative (1995): With
the support of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, a public/private partnership
to reclaim the city’s schoolyards is established as a way
to stimulate community ownership
22. Citizen Schools (1995): A creative national
learning model developed by a Boston nonprofit that pairs adults
with students for hands-on experiential learning activities is
founded
23. Jump Start (2002): A nonprofit is founded
by Boston University using mentoring relationships to help young
adults with psychiatric disabilities transition from school to
work.
Breakthroughs in Community Development
and Housing
24. Iquilinos Boricuas en Accion (1968): Boston’s
Puerto Rican community successfully fights to control the future
of a piece of land in the South End called Parcel 19, winning
the right to develop the land themselves, forming IBA, and building
a national model for housing ownership and community development
25. Stopping the Urban Highway (1970): Opposition from neighborhood
groups stops the “Inner Belt” from destroying inner-city
neighborhoods in a dramatic movement unparalleled in the United
States
26. Rosie’s Place (1974): The first shelter
for homeless women in the United States is launched by Boston
activist Kip Tiernan
27. Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s
Approach (1980): LISC, today the largest community building organization
in the country, creates its national/local matching of funds approach
in 1980 when it opens its first local branch in Boston
28. Linkage Concept (1983): Boston is the first
in the nation to require developers of certain downtown properties
to give a percentage of the cost of development to projects in
inner-city neighborhoods that benefit low-income groups
29. Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (1985):
This initiative in Roxbury becomes the first community-based nonprofit
in the country to be granted eminent domain over abandoned land
within its boundaries
30. The Big Dig (1976-2004): Using the new techniques
in civil engineering as well as consensus building, the largest
urban infrastructure project in U.S. history results in re-knitting
a number of Boston’s neighborhoods
A Breakthrough in Community Safety
31. The Boston Miracle (1992): Through “community
policing” by the Boston Police Department—and a partnership
among the City of Boston, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s
office, a group of urban pastors called the Ten Point Coalition,
and other community-based groups—a groundbreaking model
for curbing youth violence and creating safe neighborhoods is
born
Breakthroughs in Community Service
32. First YMCA (1851): In an era of heavy immigration,
Boston founds the first YMCA in the United States
33. First YWCA (1866): The first YWCA in the United
States opens in Boston as an organization governed by women and
offering a program of services and activities for women
34. Denison House, Dorchester (1892): A small
group of college-educated women under the direction of Emily Greene
Balch (who would later win a Nobel Prize for her work), sets up
this organization to improve the
conditions of poor immigrants
35. City Year (1988): This privately-funded, non-governmental
youth service organization is launched by Alan Khazei and Michael
Brown—and is destined to become a model for the national
Americorps program
Breakthroughs in Parks
and Green Spaces
36. First Town Common in the American Colonies (1630): The voters
of the town of Boston agree to tax themselves to purchase a centrally-located
parcel of land for use as a town common
37. First Botanical Garden (1837): Boston’s
Public Garden is established for beauty and recreation
38. Appalachian Mountain Club (1876): The first conservation and
recreation organization in the country is launched by MIT Professor
Edward Pickering
39. First Public Playground (1892): Frederick
Law Olmsted designs Charlesbank Park along the Charles River in
the Back Bay section of Boston
40. First Metropolitan Park System (1892): Charles
Eliot, a member of the Frederick Law Olmsted Landscape Architectural
Firm, successfully proposes the creation of the first Metropolitan
Park System to give people in an urban area access to nature
41. First Designated Historic District (1955):
Beacon Hill becomes the country’s first urban neighborhood
to be designated an historic district
42. Greening of Boston (1987): The Carol R. Goldberg
Seminar releases a plan for a green space renaissance that becomes
a national blueprint
43. Boston Harbor Islands National Park (1996):
A unique national park is created, including 34 islands within
Boston Harbor managed not by the Park Service but by a 13 member
public/private partnership
Breakthroughs in Public Health
44. First Public Health Commission (1799): An
outbreak of cholera prompts authorities to appoint Paul Revere
as Boston’s first public health officer
45. First Nutrition Clinic (1918): What is now
the New England Medical Center, sets up the first nutrition clinic
at the end of World War I
46. First Community-Centered Neighborhood Health
Center (1967): Doctors Geiger and Gibson open the Columbia Point
Housing Development in Dorchester to combine health interventions
with civil rights and
community empowerment—followed by the establishment of the
first network of Community Health Centers
47. Walk for Hunger (1969): Launching an innovative
approach to tackling hunger, this program chooses
an interactive approach to building awareness and involvement
48. Violence and Public Health (1987): Boston
City Hospital’s Deborah Prothrow-Stith suggests that street
violence should be considered a public health issue, contributing
to Boston’s community policing model
Breakthroughs in Public Art and Culture
49. First Pops (1885): The Boston Pops series
of concerts featuring light music is developed by the founder
of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Henry Lee Higginson
50. The First “First Night” (1976):
Founded by Boston artist Clara Wainwright and other artists and
friends, spawns 200 other First Nights around the world
