Celebrating Crispus Attucks Day
March 5 commemorates the life of the first hero of the American Revolution.
Crispus Attucks was an Afro-Native man who is widely recognized as the first person killed in the Boston Massacre which sparked the American Revolution. He was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, in 1723 and was the son of an African father and a Native-American mother. He worked as a sailor, a rope-maker, and a dockworker throughout his life. On March 5, 1770, a fight erupted between British soldiers and a crowd of colonists in what would become known as the Boston Massacre. Attucks was killed in the attack and became a symbol of American freedom and patriotism. His legacy was honored in the 19th and 20th centuries with statues and memorials celebrating his life and death. He is remembered today as a hero of the American Revolution and a symbol of the struggle for civil rights.
