Association of Black Citizens of Lexington -ABCL

09/02/2026

Alan Dawson: Leading Lexingtonian
Jazz Concert and Celebration at The Depot
Thurs, Sept 10 - 6 to 8 pm

Join ABCL and the Lexington History Museums in celebrating Alan Dawson, an iconic drummer and music teacher who inspired countless musicians through the decades. Mr. Dawson is also an ABCL Black History Project of Lexington banner honoree who cofounded the Concerned Black Citizens of Lexington (CBCL) on or about September 25, 1975. The CBCL was a non-profit organization that hosted socials and worked to reform the Lexington Police Department's treatment of Black youth and to make the learning environment in Lexington Public Schools more equitable for Black students. While the CBCL was dormant by the early 1980s, Mr. Dawson continued to be a shining example for his students and peers.

Alan Dawson was an extraordinary jazz drummer, percussionist, and teacher who inspired countless students to pursue professional music and instruction. His accomplishments were many: He played with the Army Dance Band at Fort Dix during the Korean War. He taught at Berklee College of Music, and offered private lessons in his own home off of Wi******er Drive. His drumming was featured on albums with artists such as Quincy Jones, Clifford Brown, Dexter Gordon, and Dave Brubeck. He formed his own band, the Alan Dawson Quartet, and had a posthumous album, Waltzin’ with Flo, released in 2000. Most importantly, his teaching methods are still being used today by his students who continue to lift up the next generation of jazz musicians.

Join us as we welcome family, former students, and music enthusiasts to honor Dawson’s legacy in Lexington.

Enjoy live music from Ron Savage, Chris Neville, and Ron Mahdi, followed by an interactive celebration of Dawson’s career led by Dawson’s daughter Deborah Mullins and student Mike Powers.

Co-sponsored by the Lexington History Museums

$10 LHM/ABCL Members, $15 Nonmembers

A limited number of books, The Drummer's Complete Vocabulary As Taught by Alan Dawson, are available for $26. They are signed by John Ramsay. Mr. Ramsay is a former Dawson student and Berklee professor who lives in Lexington.

Buy your tickets today!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/alan-dawson-leading-lexingtonian-tickets-1996657937640?aff=oddtdtcreator

07/16/2026

Thank you LexMedia for your coverage of this important cultural and historical event in the Cradle of Liberty.

We have already begun planning for the 7th Annual Quock Walker Day Community Celebration - Saturday, July 10, 2027.

07/10/2026

We are looking forward to celebrating Quock Walker's Hike for Freedom on what is forecast to be a mild Saturday morning. Please note that onsite registration begins at 8 am.

Date: Saturday, July 11, 2026

Venue: Lexington Visitors Center Lawn, 1875 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, MA

What: Family-friendly hike on the ACROSS Lexington Route E(mancipation) Loop to commemorate Quock Walker’s journey from enslavement to employment in Barre, MA in April 1781.

Who: Quock (Kwaku) Walker was born on a Wednesday in 1753 to Mingo and Dinah. He self-emancipated and declared himself a yeoman in 1781. He bought property in Barre and got married in 1786.

Why: Quock Walker's legal victories in 1781 led to the 1783 Supreme Judicial Court case that abolished slavery in Massachusetts over 70 years before Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

During your journey across Route E(mancipation) you will pass by the foot of Belfry Hill where Venuse Roe was enslaved in the home of Jonas Roe. At about three years old, she was gifted to Smitheren Reed of Woburn District. And you will pass by Lexington Green where Prince Estabrook was injured during the Battle of Lexington at dawn of April 19, 1775. Private Prince Estabrook enlisted for several three year terms as an enslaved soldier of the Continental Army.

Venus Roe and Prince Estabrook were emancipated in 1783 in the wake of the third Quock Walker case, Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Nathaniel Jennison.

8:00 AM: T-shirt pickup for online registrants and on site registration
8:15 AM: Reading of Lexington's Quock Walker Day Proclamation
8:30 AM: Hike ACROSS Lexington Route E(mancipation) Loop - 4.3 miles

Post-Hike:
6th Annual Quock Walker Day Community Celebration, Saturday, July 11, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m., Lexington Visitors Center Lawn, 1875 Massachusetts Ave., Lexington

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/6th-annual-quock-walker-day-hike-for-freedom-tickets-1993200399049

07/09/2026

Happy Quock Walker Day aka Massachusetts Emancipation Day!

On Massachusetts Emancipation Day, we honor Quock Walker's fight for his freedom and its role in ending slavery in the Commonwealth.

06/21/2026

06/20/2026

Join ABCL for the sixth annual Quock Walker Day celebrations in Lexington on Saturday, July 11, 2026 from 11 am to 2 pm.

Join us for the 6th Annual Quock Walker Day aka Massachusetts Emancipation Day: Quock Walker & Freedom Further Extended
Celebrate Quock Walker Day aka Massachusetts Emancipation Day with ABCL!

Celebrate the 243rd Anniversary of Massachusetts Emancipation Day and hear how the call to Further Extend the Liberties espoused in the Declaration of Independence Revolutionary War set the stage for Quock Walker’s judicial victories in his 1781 civil lawsuit for battery against his former ensaver led to the 1783 criminal case that ended slavery in Massachusetts.

Join us for the 6th Annual Quock Walker Day Community Celebration at the Lexington Visitors Center Lawn, 1875 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, MA 02420 - FREE. The festivities start at 11 am with music and recitation of the Governor’s Quock Walker Day proclamation.

FIND YOUR JOY at any age with storytellers, Farm to Plate Caribbean American Food Truck, a dance workshop, Black heritage scavenger hunts, hands-on flax processing demonstration, military reenactors, and musical performance by Rhythms of Ghana. Festivities close with a poetry recital at 2 pm.

Honor the 250th anniversary of Liberty Further Extended: Or Free Thoughts on the Illegality of Slave-Keeping. This essay by Rev Lemuel Haynes, a former Minuteman and Revolutionary War veteran, critiques the limits of the Declaration of Indepence and dismantles the moral and legal justifications for slavery. These arguments are reflected in Article 1 of the Massachusetts Constitution which was adopted in 1780. In 1783, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court confirmed that the idea of slavery is inconsistent with the 1780 Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Rain Location for the 6th Annual Quock Walker Day Community Celebration is First Parish of Lexington, 7 Harrington Rd, Lexington, MA 02421

Join ABCL for the 6th Annual Quock Walker Day aka Massachusetts Emancipation Day: Quock Walker & Freedom Further Extended

05/20/2026

Memorial Day is a time to reflect on the dedication and sacrifice upon which our nation is built.

Join ABCL in remembering and honoring those who gave everything during the Revolutionary War, including Private Isaac Barbadoes who died in December 1777 while serving in Capt. Edmund Munro’s company in Col. Timothy Bigelow’s regiment, the 15th Massachusetts Regiment.

Isaac and his sister Mary were baptized in Lexington on November 16, 1755. They and their parents Quawk and Kate were enslaved at that time. By July 11, 1756, when their third child, Abel, was baptized, Quawk and Kate had acquired their freedom and taken the surname Barbadoes.

A year later, on May 5, 1757, Quawk died. Kate Barbadoes raised the three children alone.

In April 1777, Isaac Barbadoes enlisted in the Continental Army from Woburn. From the enlistment records, it appears that Isaac was not a Woburn resident but likely a resident of Shrewsbury. He was part of the class of enlistees who were hired from time to time by Woburn to fill its quota or by private individuals to act as substitutes.

When Kate Barbadoes claimed her son's body, she reportedly had to produce Isaac's manumission papers. It was common for emancipated Black residents of colonial Massachusetts to have copies of their manumission papers made so that they could prove and maintain their freedom. Without the papers documenting his 21 years of freedom, it is uncertain what would have happened to the remains of this Black Patriot.

04/21/2026

Explore the often-overlooked role that Black people played in the Battle of Lexington & the Revolutionary War, including enslaved soldiers.

Military Patriot Pompey Fiske - explore the role that Black men and women, like enslaved Lexington resident Pompey Fiske played in the Revolutionary War.

This episode features the inspirational story of Pompey Fiske and his journey from being an enslaved witness of the intense fighting at Fiske Farm on April 19, 1775 to a soldier in the Continental Army.

While enslaved, Pompey Fiske lived in the Ebenezer Fiske House, which is located on the eastern boundary of Minute Man National Historical Park near the intersection of Wood Street and Old Massachusetts Avenue.

Explore what it was like to be a servant for life in Colonial Lexington and to fight for a nascent country while enslaved.

A free event.

Presenters: Dr. Bill Poole, PhD, retired history and science teacher and historian for the Lexington Minute Men and Sean D. Osborne, public historian and producer of the Black Patriots of Lexington YouTube series.

For more information on the Black Patriots of Lexington video series visit www.abclex.org and https://lex250.org/lexington-blackpatriots/

Cohosted by the Association of Black Citizens of Lexington, Lexington History Museums and Tricons 2 Red Tails.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-black-patriots-of-lexington-pompey-fiske-episode-screening-qa-tickets-1986551874132

Explore the often-overlooked role that Black people played in the Battle of Lexington & the Revolutionary War, including enslaved soldiers.