An American Hero
Attucks takes his place in the pantheon of national heroes in the popular consciousness.
Imagining the Massacre
Artists draw on the memory of Attucks’s role in the Massacre to help navigate moments of national crisis.
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Facing Attucks
With no confirmed portrait of Attucks, artists draw on their imaginations to bring him to life.
Attucks in Art
Artists portrayed Attucks to remind the nation that people of African and Native descent are central to the American story.
Fighting for Equity
In Boston, Attucks’s legacy became a powerful tool for Black leaders facing white backlash against desegregation.
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Fighting for Equality
A new generation of activists invokes Attucks’s story to challenge white supremacists at the turn of the 20th century.
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Fighting for A Place in the City
As Black communities faced new threats and challenges following the Civil War, Black Bostonians took up the cause of creating a monument to secure Attucks’s legacy.
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Fighting for Freedom
Presented as the first martyr of the Revolution, Attucks’s legacy is revived to serve the cause of abolition.
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Fighting for Independence
Attucks’s death at the Boston Massacre became a rallying point on the road to Revolution.
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Fighting for Change
Generations of Americans called on the memory of Attucks in their own struggles for freedom and equality.
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