From the Sun Chronicle:
Honoring Black Patriot
BY RICK FOSTER
SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Friday, July 3, 2009 2:19 AM EDT
Plainville man eyes recognition for Prince Hall
He was an outspoken contemporary of John Hancock and George Washington, a patriot and a civic leader who organized opposition to slavery and started schools for African-American children. His name is revered among the Masons, of which he was an early leader and loyal member.
Yet Prince Hall, who some historians say should be counted among America's founding fathers, rates scarcely a footnote in most history texts. Nevertheless, some scholars consider him among the most influential men of his generation whose legacy is felt to this day.
Hall might be better known today if he had been white.
"Prince Hall might be the most influential black man who ever lived in this country," said Red T. Mitchell, a retired insurance executive and history buff from Plainville who is part of a group that has organized to honor Hall with his own monument in the city of Cambridge. "He was a patriot, an abolitionist and could be considered the first civil rights organizer."
It would take another 200 years of marches, constitutional amendments and Supreme Court decisions to bring about equal rights for black as well as white Americans. But every major milestone - from the abolition of slavery to the right of minority children to an equal education - had an early advocate in Hall and his followers. Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons is spearheading the effort to install a monument to Hall on the Cambridge city common, the same place where George Washington once stood at the head of the newly formed Continental Army. The $100,000 monument, funded through private donations, is due to be unveiled Sept. 12.
For decades, the freed slave who became a prominent tradesman and civil rights advocate has been shrouded in mystery. But historical research has pieced together the work of Hall from his tireless efforts to abolish slavery to his insistence on free public schools for blacks.
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