Crispus Attucks was one of the Boston Patriots to die during the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. Not much is known about Attucks, but most historians agree that he was of mixed blood of African and Native descent. It appears that Attucks was engaged in the maritime industries of New England and had some experience as a sailor. As tension between Great Britain and her American colonies erupted in 1765 with Parliament’s passing of the Stamp Act, Great Britain felt compelled to send British troops to occupy Boston, the hotbed of colonial resistance. The lone sentry of the Custom House, was attacked by a vociferous mob who threw stones, snowballs, chunks of ice and wood at the sentinel. Fearing for his life, he called for reinforcements from the nearby garrison for assistance. Captain Thomas Preston and seven soldiers joined the sentry at the Custom House. The crowd only grew larger. As the crowd threw chunks of ice and clubs at the soldiers, one found its mark and knocked a British soldier to the ground. He stood back up, yelled and fired his musket into the crowd. Immediately all the other British soldiers opened fire in a ragged volley. Five men immediately fell dead, the first among them was Attucks with two musket balls in his chest. A large funeral was held in Boston and the five victims of the “Boston Massacre” were buried together in a common grave in Boston’s Old Granary Burying Ground.
In his seminal book, “Why We Can’t Wait,” the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote about the inspired life of Crispus Attucks, saying, “He is one of the most important figures in African-American history, not for what he did for his own race but for what he did for all oppressed people everywhere. He is a reminder that the African-American heritage is not only African but American and it is a heritage that begins with the beginning of America.”