Cambridge Community Development Department Celebrates Black History Month


2/1/2019 • 5 years ago

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Celebrate Black History Month with the Community Development Department

In honor of Black History Month, we're recognizing African American pioneers who helped make our cities what they are today through leadership, advocacy, and invention. Learn more about some of the figures throughout American history who made significant contributions to urban development and how their legacies live on through CDD's initiatives. 

Community Planning & Parks

  • Cap Wigington was an architect who significantly shaped the urban form of St. Paul, MN during the early 20th century. As senior architectural designer, he created schools, fire stations, golf clubhouses, airports, and more. 

Continue the legacy by learning about Cambridge's Planning and Urban Design initiatives.

Economic Development

  • Massachusetts-based Paul Cuffe was an African American entrepreneur, running a shipping business between America, Canada, Europe, and the Caribbean from 1778-1810.

Continue the legacy with the Cambridge Business Planning Program.

  • In 1886, Robert H. Carter was the first African American to become a licensed pharmacist in Massachusetts, owning and operating 5 local drugstores in Boston & New Bedford. 

Continue the legacy by learning about our small business resources. 

Environmental Planning

  • Dr. Joycelyn Simpson is a research scientist for NASA’s Langley Research Center who invented a new type of power producing, high performance kinetic energy tiles. When pressure is applied to this piece, it generates electricity, which when used with wind and water power can lead to a low-cost, environmentally friendly source of power.

Continue the legacy by learning about renewable energy in Cambridge. 

  • Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson is the current President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. from MIT. After MIT, she conducted research that formed the basis for the invention of solar cells.

Continue the legacy by learning about the Sunny Cambridge program. 

  • Lisa P. Jackson was the first African-American to become the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (2009-2013). 

Continue the legacy by learning about the Climate Change Preparedness & Resilience Plan.

  • Hazel O’Leary was the first woman and first African American to be appointed as the US Secretary of Energy (1993-1997).

Continue the legacy by learning about the Net Zero Action Plan. 

Housing Planning

  • Dorothy Mae Richardson led a resident campaign for better housing in her Pittsburgh neighborhood during the 1960s. She is credited for introducing a new model of community development & inspiring other resident-led organizations 

Continue the legacy by learning about the City's affordable housing resources.

Transportation Planning

  • Garrett Morgan invented the modern-day traffic signal after he created a patent for a traffic control device that had a stop, go, and “warning” signal in 1922.

Continue the legacy with our Vision Zero Action Plan.

  • In the late 19th century, engineer Elijah McCoy invented a lubricating mechanism that allowed trains to run for long periods of time without stopping for maintenance. 

Continue the legacy by learning about the City's transit planning. 

  • While working in Lynn, MA during the late 19th century, inventor Jan Matzeliger revolutionized shoemaking, making it attainable for the general population to have shoes. Talk about making walking a viable mode of transportation! 

Continue the legacy by learning about our Pedestrian Committee.

  • African American inventor Granville T. Woods created the Third Rail in 1901. It is still the way that many subway systems are powered.

Continue the legacy with our Transit Strategic Plan.

  • Kittie Knox challenged race & gender barriers in the 1890s when the she refused to acknowledge the League of American Wheelmen’s color ban. The Boston-based cyclist is buried in Mt. Auburn Cemetery and the Kittie Knox Bike Path, established in 2018, now runs along the 6th Street Connector. 

Continue the legacy by learning about CDD's bike resources.