Professors from UMass Boston are teaming up with the neighborhood’s Historical Society to seek our untold tales of Dorchester people past and present. The new initiative— dubbed “A People’s History”— will kick off with an event at the Dorchester Historical Society’s headquarters on Boston Street on April 22 from 10a.m.-12p.m.
“We want to empower people in being historians themselves,” said Jane Becker, PhD, from UMass Boston’s History Department. “Understanding how things have gotten to where they are is a crucial part of our human experience.”
UMass Boston students have been focused on Dorchester’s history in recent months, making a series of presentations — including one that focused on the tumultuous run-up to the desegregation of city schools in the 1960s and 70s; and another on historic preservation in Uphams Corner.
Becker says that the UMass effort intends to create an interactive timeline that will be a jumping off point for the April 22 discussion. Attendees can fill in dates, events, and stories on the timeline that they think are important.
The timeline will highlight “what’s not there, and what has never been there,” said Becker.
“Missing history” will be found through personal stories about pivotal times in Dorchester’s recent past. Key events in the American civil rights movement and immigration are topics that can be further explored— and guests are asked to bring records or genealogical research to the table.
While there is a strong core of longtime residents and academics who attend events by the Dorchester History Initiative, the group is hoping to expand their appeal. They are particularly hoping to attract underrepresented communities of color that can help shine light onto a forgotten past, said Becker.
“We are a history program and an academic program, but we want to make sure that we’re inclusive of everybody,” said Monica Pelayo, PhD, the Director of the Public History Track and an assistant professor at UMass Boston’s History Department.
Pelayo saw the possibility for increased civic engagement from empowering events like this.
“In reality, everyone is a participant in history, and creates history themselves,” she said.
