Beacon Hill Scholars

Horace speaking at Beacon Hill Scholars at the African Meeting House, Sept. 25, 2015

Beacon Hill Scholars was born when Horace facilitated a group of people who wanted to continue meeting , inspired to “act on it”, after the first history seminar had ended.

Beacon Hill Scholars got its start out of a history discussion group (We were gathered in the Abiel Smith School to discuss James & Lois Horton’s Black Bostonians). That was the predecessor of what Horace called “A Seminar for History Nuts”.

People were all fired up about the neglected history of courageous african-americans in Boston and wanted to continue meeting after that seminar had ended. They wanted not just to read about it but to do something with it. (Put on educational programs etc)

Horace arranged for us to continue meeting in the office of the National Park Service. New people who met Horace walking about on his tours were inspired to join the “Smith School Scholars” (which was an homage to the pupils or “Scholars” of the Abiel Smith School where we first met). Later that became “Beacon Hill Scholars”

Meanwhile Horace kept attracting more people who were interested in history seminars, and he held these regular seminars “for History Nuts” about three times a year for about 10 years.