Announcing Mount Auburn’ s African American Heritage Trail
Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery 580 Mount Auburn Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138-5517
www. mountauburn. org • 617-547-7105
NON-PROFIT ORG. U. S. POSTAGE PAID LEOMINSTER, MA PERMIT NO. 17
Upcoming Events
Join us for a program this winter. For a complete listing of our upcoming events, visit us online at www. mountauburn. org.
e Candle Lighting Service Thursday, December 18, 2012,
This annual event provides the opportunity to remember loved ones no longer with us. During the service, you will have the opportunity to light a candle in honor of someone you wish to remember. Weather permitting, we will place the lighted candles in nearby Asa Gray Garden at the conclusion of the event.
Speakers this year will include: Reverend Stephen Kendrick, Senior Minister, First Church in Boston Swami Tyagananda, Hindu Chaplain, MIT and Harvard University
We will host a reception, and book signing with Richard Cheek for Mount Auburn: Beauty on the Edge of Eternity, in Bigelow Chapel immediately following the service.
e Longfellow Birthday Celebration February 23, 2013, 10:30 AM
Join us for this annual event in Story Chapel. Co-sponsored by the Longfellow House – Washington’ s Headquarters National Historic Site and the Friends of Mount Auburn. Check our website for additional details as the event nears.
e Volunteer Docent Training Tuesday, March 26; Wednesday March 27; and Thursday, March 28
Would you like to be an ambassador of Mount Auburn Cemetery? Consider becoming a docent! This three-day training course will provide a solid overview of Mount Auburn’ s many facets and prepare you for sharing these with the public. The course is free, but pre-registration is required and docents must attend all three sessions.
Peter Byus Monument by Jennifer Johnston
The memorial for Peter Byus( Lot # 3752, Magnolia Avenue) briefly shares the life story of an escaped slave:
“ In memory of Peter Byus, born in Hampshire County, Virginia, a slave. At the age of about thirty six he fled to Boston for freedom where he resided for the last thirty years. He died the 27th of February 1867. Aged 66 years. He was a sincere Christian, a true friend and an honest man.”
Announcing Mount Auburn’ s African American Heritage Trail
Among those now buried at Mount Auburn are authors, journalists, jurists, lawyers, politicians, musicians, athletes, entrepreneurs, activists, and reformers that help to illustrate the African American experience in Boston and beyond during the 19th and 20th centuries. This February, the Friends of Mount Auburn will launch an interpretive trail to celebrate the lives and legacies of fourteen individuals significant in telling this story.
Included on the Heritage Trail are: Peter Byus( 1801(?) – 1867), whose monument and story are shared above. Kittie Knox( 1875 – 1900), competitive cyclist and activist, known as the“ Rosa Parks of cycling’; Benjamin Franklin Roberts( 1814 – 1881), printer and activist whose 1840s suit against the Boston School System was the first court case to challenge the practice of segregation; and Harriet Jacobs( 1813 – 1897) freedom-seeker, abolitionist, and author of the historically significant slave narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, written by Herself( 1860).
The Heritage Trail with its printed guide, website exhibit, and mobile tour will launch on February 11th, in honor of Harriet Jacobs on her 200th birthday.
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