North Andover Black History Committee Awarded Mass Humanities Grant

Information via Mass Humanities

NORTH ANDOVER, MA — Mass Humanities, the state-based affiliate of the National Endowment of the Humanities, has awarded a grant to a local North Andover organization. The North Andover Black History Committee is the recipient of the $10,783 grant and will be matching the grant amount. The funds will be used to create programming and school curriculum to bring to light the lives and stories of African Americans with ties to Essex County and eastern Massachusetts whose influence shaped history in the pivotal decades of the late 19th and early 20th Century.

About the grant: The Mass Humanities Grant is an Open Track Grant for Expanding Massachusetts Stories. The Open Track grant program offers up to $20,000 for projects that collect, interpret and/or share narratives about the Commonwealth, with an emphasis on the voices and experiences that have gone unrecognized, or have been excluded from public conversation. North Andover Representative Adrianne Ramos originally recommended the grant to the committee in early 2024, and our local legislators have provided enthusiastic support. “Each year our legislative delegation looks forward to participating in the programming put together by this Committee. We could not think of a better grantee to be awarded an Expand Massachusetts Stories grant as the Committee exemplifies the goal of this program to share unrecognized or previously excluded voices and stories, as they do that each year and make our community better for it.”

About the programming: Under the umbrella theme, Building the Road to Full Citizenship, programs will deepen the community’s knowledge of local African Americans who exercised leadership by building institutions, organizations and movements in an environment that did not allow for their full inclusion in civic life. The highlights in 2025 will include a music and spoken word program with artist James Dargan that contextualizes the broad arc of history in which they lived on Sunday, February 9, and an original dramatic and musical program to bring these stories to life on Sunday, March 2, both at North Parish Church. There are also lectures being planned at the Worden Theater at the North Andover Historical Society and a tribute to local Andover ice cream entrepreneurs at the Andover Juneteenth 2025 celebration.

About The North Andover Black History Committee: Formerly North Andover Celebrates Black History Month, the North Andover Black History Committee is a local grass roots organization active in North Andover since 2022. Some of their past projects include the creation of banners for the town common for Black History Month, a gospel music event, and sponsorship of lectures and films. Originating as a project of the North Parish Racial Justice Team, the committee has grown to become a community-based group that includes members from across North Andover, Andover, and Georgetown. The committee is working with Humanities advisor Dr. Jaimie Wilson, History professor at Salem State University, and has worked in partnership with the Town of North Andover, The North Andover Historical Society and the Stevens Memorial Library. Past projects have been supported in part by grants from the North Andover Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.