We Need to Protect Local History from Federal Censorship

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Last week I joined thousands of people walking Newburyport’s streets during Yankee Homecoming’s opening night festivities. Doing so, I happened upon three celebrations of Black lives in my hometown. The historical markers commemorate the vibrant black life that once existed here. 

• Caroline Cotrell (1856-1918) was born into slavery and was one of the nearly 40% of Black women living in Newburyport who worked as domestic servants for well-to-do white families. While their employers frequently referred to these servants as “one of the family,” their working conditions were quite challenging, including 12-18 hour days, often seven days a week. There is no indication that Ms. Cotrell ever married. She was very much involved in the rearing of Newburyport’s future mayor, Gayden W. Morrill. [Marker on Green Street across from police station.]
• John C.H. Young was one of several “highly skilled” Black barbers practicing their trade in town in the late 19th century. This “significant concentration of thriving Black-owned businesses no longer exists and the buildings where they worked have been erased from existence.” A fellow barber, Andrew Raymond, served as president of the Newburyport Anti-Slavery Society. In 1896, Newburyport white barbers refused to provide service to an African-American man stating that they “could not afford to lose regular customers in the cause of human equality.” Mr. Brown died in a poor house. [Marker on Merrimac Street near Green Street]
• Lewis Clarkson Tyree moved to Newburyport in 1904 and achieved his goal of attending Phillips Exeter Academy, from which he graduated. He became the first African-American graduate of Clark University. (Maybe he saw Freud speak there in 1909.) He attended Harvard Law and received a degree from Boston University during a period when hundreds of Blacks were being “massacred” in cities across the US against a backdrop of hostility directed toward Black progress. He coordinated meetings for the National Bar Association to defend the “Scottboro Boys,” 9 Black teenagers falsely accused of raping two white women. [Marker on Pleasant Street next to Bobbi Smiths Hair Salon]

There are some other markers regarding the Black experience on the Clipper Trail in Newburyport. I wonder what is going to happen to the commemoration of these individuals here in Newburyport and elsewhere as the deeply partisan state of Trump’s USA, Inc. takes hold. 

According to the New York Times on July 27, 2025, Amy Sherald, the artist who painted a famous portrait of Michelle Obama, canceled her upcoming show at the  Smithsonian after she said she learned that her painting of a transgender Statue of Liberty might be removed to avoid provoking President Trump.

The straightjacket being put on the Smithsonian is part of a larger effort to erase the parts of history that, according to some, “make America look bad.”

A Trump executive order has instructed the Park Service to “review plaques, films, and other materials presented to visitors at 433 sites around the country, with the aim of ensuring they emphasize the “progress of the American people” and the “grandeur of the American landscape.’” and eliminate signage that ‘inappropriately disparages Americans.’” Further, the general public is being encouraged to flag any content on signage or statements by Park personnel that they think should be changed. Park visitors are being turned into quasi-official censors.

These actions are similar to legislation in Florida making it illegal for educators that might make members of one race feel badly about actions committed by people of their race in the past against the wellbeing of the members of another race, i.e., “the teacher talked about the enslavement of Black people as a really terrible thing, and that made me feel bad. So, he should be fined and/or go to jail!” 

You might think that it’s a reach to think that honest signage in Newburyport could be taken down just because it’s happening in our national parks, but you’d be wrong. Everywhere we look, we’re seeing demands to salute Trump and Trumpism or get lost. In 1940, Sinclair Lewis wondered if a fully authoritarian state could take hold in America. Tragically, it is close to happening across the US, and it could certainly happen here. 

These markers tell the truth about our town’s treatment of Black people. Cherish and study them. They may not be around for much longer. 

Michael Sales
Newburyport resident

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