Witness: An Oral History of Black Politics in Boston 1920–1960

Lance Carden

Jan 2023 · Wipf and Stock Publishers

About this ebook

This book begins in 1917 at the beginning of World War I and ends with a discussion of urban renewal, which took place in Boston's black community in the 1950s and 1960s. It is based on twenty-three long, taped interviews with prominent black Bostonians between July of 1988 and February of 1989. It is thus a narrative about black politics taken from the memories of black Bostonians between July of 1988 and February of 1989. The last section of the book is a curriculum guide written for high school and college teachers by the well-known black educator, historian, and author Robert C. Hayden. For each of the four decades between the 1920s and 1960s, it contains background information, chapter summaries, social studies concepts and topics, questions for discussion, proposed student activities, and suggested readings.

About the author

Lance Carden has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from the University of Oregon. For many years, he was a writer and editor at The Christian Science Monitor. He also spent two years as editor of The Citizen Advocate, a newspaper published by Massachusetts Fair Share, an advocacy group organizing blue-collar neighborhoods statewide. In 1989, he wrote this book, Witness: An Oral History of Black Politics in Boston, 1920-1960, which was published by Boston College.

In 2013, he and his wife, Charlene Vincent, published Tuscan Retreat, a book of poems written during a long stay in Italy. In 2015, he published another book of poems titled City of Lions, A Poet’s Guide, celebrating the 450th anniversary of St. Augustine, Florida. In October of 2018, A Classic Theatre (ACT) gave a successful staged reading of his play Democracy’s Demise in St. Augustine. A full production scheduled for 2020 did not take place because of the coronavirus. Spiritual Exercise, another book of poetry, was published in 2019 by Wipf and Stock Publishers, who also published in 2021 his latest poetry book, The Civil War: It Ain’t Over Yet!