Ray Reddick’s African-American Ancestors in Boston’s Historic West End

Raymond Reddick, a lifelong Boston resident who is now 74 years old, has spent decades collecting, documenting, and speaking to different audiences about his extensive African-American family history with deep ties to the historic West End.

The Reckonings Project, in particular research assistants Adam Tomasi, Elijah Miller, and Rose-Laura Meus, have collaborated with Reddick and The West End Museum to produce, after a series of oral history interviews, a two-part, co-created report that spotlights Ray Reddick’s family history along with stunning photographs of his ancestors.

Read part one of the two-part article co-written by Adam Tomasi, Rose-Laura Meus and Ray Reddick, on The West End Museum‘s website:

“I feel so fortunate to be a part of the Reckonings Project.  It aligns with one of my research interests – recovering lost Black narratives, experiences, and histories through the sociological lens although my work is, increasingly, becoming transdisciplinary. This is a taste of who I am, my research commitments and how I approach my work, the work, and the Reckonings project.”

Shavaun Sutton
Research Assistant, Reckonings, Summer 2022, and Co-Creator, Black Artists of Boston

here

I come from ground provisions, flying fish, “woo-oo” calls, notes on the stairs to signal presence and absence
I am a first-gen West Indian American
Far from the sun and clear ocean
I come from New York City purgatory- heaven nor hell, not quite urban, not quite suburban
The forgotten borough of Staten Island where we move to our own beat and are overshadowed by
the City
I come from a loss
A lack of recognition
Erasure
of Blackness- our narratives, lives
Lost
To a sea of whiteness

I “rest” in academia
Until the tide comes in
A momentary stop to recover what has been erased
I rest in a love that
Respects
Acts
Nurtures
Witnesses
Returns knowledges from whence it came

I go to the Black communities I love and respect to be held accountable
To be held
As a mirror and amp for those unseen and unheard
I go to places of revolution and restoration
Outside of these hallowed halls and cold classrooms
I go to hold space for reclamation and recovery
Taking back what was stolen
Stories and hope, chance
I go to be held and to hold
lovingly
community
Safe and secure from institutional harm.

Victoria Dey

Victoria earned her B.A. in French and International Relations from the University of Rochester in 2021 and began the World History doctoral program at Northeastern University the following semester. Victoria’s research interests include the intentional modern manipulations of French memory during times of conflict that continue to influence race relations , identity, and other aspects of French society.

Hunter Moskowitz

I am a doctoral student in World History at Northeastern with a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. My research interests include examining how workers have resisted, shaped, and mediated colonialism. I hope to understand how power operates in eighteenth and nineteenth century communities through studying the intersection between race, labor, and gender.  

Alanna Prince

Alanna Prince is a PhD candidate in the university’s English department.  Her work focuses on late 20th and 21st-century Black literature and visual culture, with a particular emphasis on historical resonance, poetics, and gender/sexuality. She also has participated in several Digital Humanities projects on campus, including the Early Caribbean Digital Archive, where she acts as a Metadata and Acquisitions Lead.

Cassie Tanks

Cassie Tanks graduated from San Diego State University with a B.A. in History and an M.S. in Library Science from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She in an incoming World History PhD student at Northeastern University.

Welcome / Fall 2022

Welcome to the first newsletter of the Reckoning Project, an innovative program of co-creation to empower BIPOC communities and citizens in the preservation, creation, and curation of community histories. Partners, students, faculty, and staff work together to recover under-represented histories and cultures, to make the historical record more accurate, and to encourage reckoning with the historical record. I hope you enjoy this glimpse into our work and might consider bringing possible collaborations to our attention.

Yours,
Uta Poiger
Co-Principal Investigator
Reckonings Project

Introducing Dzidzor Azaglo

Receive the day with ease and comfort. Welcome! My name is Dzidzor, a Ga-Ewe folklore performing artist, curator and community archivists. It is an honor to serve as a community liaison for the Reckonings Project. This role is a result of a curiosity behind the various amount of ways that the recipes, languages, culture and beyond can be recorded and preserved. We share the responsibility of making it a priority to write, record, and re[member] as our world unfolds. Join our journey as we co-create with community members, educators, artists, workers, organizers and elders.

What are we listening to?

Cassie: “Good Times” by Jungle

Alanna: “Gemini Rights” album by Steve Lacy

Hunter: After Ayotzinapa podcast on Reveal

Victoria: “Renaissance” album by Beyoncé

Dzidzor: Dr. Bayo Akomolafe on Coming Alive to Other Senses podcast on For The Wild

Greg: “Line Them Up! A Paper Mario: The Origami King Concert” artist collaboration by vgmtogether