5 November 1765; reported November 11
Boston’s Pope’s Day procession keeps Black people away from its effigy platforms
Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay
Boston’s North and South End Pope’s Day groups joined in a procession after their leaders agreed to avoid their customary fighting. A contemporary newspaper celebrated the orderly display of anti-Catholic effigies and reported that Black people were not allowed near the platforms carrying them. The account paired praise for public unity with an explicit racial restriction.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The Boston Evening-Post report concerns November 5, not the August Stamp Act procession described by Zinn. It establishes a reported restriction near the effigy platforms, not a law or a ban on Black participation in every colonial protest. It does not identify who enforced the exclusion or distinguish free from enslaved people. Zinn’s separate August claim remains unresolved pending its source trail.
Sources
- Boston Evening-Post, November 11, 1765, p. 1, right column, Boston report; Harbottle Dorr collection, vol. 1, handwritten p. 264 ↗
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 4, p. 66; research lead for a separate, unresolved August procession claim; supplied edition/year unidentified