LEXINGTON — On Saturday, July 6, the Association of Black Citizens of Lexington held a community celebration of Massachusetts Emancipation Day, also known as Quock Walker Day.
Observed in Lexington since 2021 and recognized as a state holiday by the Governor in 2023, the day celebrates the July 8, 1783 decision of the Supreme Judicial Court that ended slavery in Massachusetts.
This was the third of the Quock Walker Cases. Walker was a Black man from Barre, MA who self-emancipated in 1781 and was deemed to a free man and awarded 50 pounds for assault and battery by a civil jury in June 1781.
The community celebration was supported by the Lex250 Commission, the organizers of the 250th Anniversary celebration of the Battle of Lexington in 1775.
“The audacity of Quock Walker is inspiring. His personal gambit was successful because of his body of work within the community and the decision of two White men to pay a Black man for his expertise and labor. Yeoman Walker and White male juries made the promise that ‘All men are born free and equal’ of Article 1 of the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution a reality,” ABCL Historian Sean D. Osborne said.
“The morning Hike for Freedom commemorated the initial journey from enslavement to employment that Walker took in 1781. The Community Celebration and the Governor’s Proclamation reminded us that there were Black farmers, soldiers, artisans and abolitionists across the Massachusetts Bay Colony who helped to build the foundation for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts before, during, and after the Revolutionary War,” Mr. Osborne said.
The opening ceremony in Lexington was attended by a number of dignitaries including State Sen. Cindy Friedman, who read the Governor’s Proclamation of Quock Walker Day, State Sen. Mike Barrett, State Rep. Michelle Ciccolo, and Lexington Select Board Chair Doug Lucente.
“The Lex250 Commission is proud to support Quock Walker Day,” Lex250 Commission Chair Suzie Barry said. “We want to make the 250th birthday of our country unlike any other by celebrating the lesser-known stories of our early history, including those involving emancipation, such as Quock Walker Day.”
