The Abiel Smith School: Landmark in the Fight for Equal Education

From Sketches of Boston, Past and Present published in 1851.

The Abiel Smith School, opened in 1835, was the first building constructed in the United States for the sole purpose of educating Black students. While the opening of the Smith School on what was once Belknap Street in Beacon Hill marked a historic moment in access to education for Black Americans, it must also be noted that this was a segregated school and remained as such until 1855. Today, the Abiel Smith School is the first building patrons enter while visiting the Museum of African American History on Beacon Hill.

During the 1780s and 1790s, Black Bostonians advocated for their children’s access to education through petitions to the state legislature; then, in 1798, they organized the African School, which first met in the home of Primus Hall and then moved to the first floor of the African Meeting House in 1808. Black children enrolled in Boston public schools moved to the African School at this time, fully segregating Black students from their white peers. The Boston School Commission received many complaints from the community about the African School’s deteriorating conditions and overcrowding, and a study by the Commission confirmed the school’s inadequacies.

In 1815, a white businessman named Abiel Smith died and bequeathed $4,000 for the education of African American children in Boston. The school committee used a portion of Smith's funds to construct the Abiel Smith School, which then opened on March 3, 1835. The conditions in the Smith School proved inferior to those of the white schools in Boston, and Black Bostonians continued the fight for equal education. Boston’s population, including the city’s Black community, grew rapidly in the 1830s and 1840s. The Smith School quickly overcrowded. Just three years after the Smith School opened, Primus Hall and others petitioned unsuccessfully to add an additional story to the building; by 1845, a report found the school to be in “deplorable condition.”

Slate and pencils from the Abiel Smith School. Image courtesy of Smith Court Stories 

Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, Bostonians in the Equal Schools movement led petition drives, protests, and eventually a boycott of the Smith School. One activist named Benjamin Roberts filed suit on behalf of his daughter Sarah against the Boston School Committee in 1849, as he wanted his daughter to be able to attend the school closest to their home rather than the Smith School. When they lost the lawsuit, the Equal Schools movement took the fight to the state legislature; as a result, public school segregation in Massachusetts was outlawed in 1855. The Abiel Smith School briefly closed, later reopening as an integrated primary school while also serving as a city storage facility. The Smith School building later housed a Grand Army of the Republic chapter and the James E. Welch Post #56 of the American Legion before becoming what it is today – an integral part of the Museum of African American History.

The Abiel Smith School has been featured in some of our past exhibits, including Massachusetts Architectural Styles and Education in the Commonwealth: A Timeline.

Alyssa Persson

Processing Archivist

Sources:

• Boston African American National Historic Site, NPS
• Smith Court Stories
• The Museum of African American History