“No niggers in here”: Frederick Douglass’s Massachusetts Experience “I remember about two years ago there was in Boston, near the southwest corner of Boston Common, a menagerie. I had long desired to see such a collection as I understood was being exhibited there. Never having had an opportunity while a slave, I resolved to seize this, and as I approached the entrance to gain admission, I was told by the door-keeper, in a harsh and contemptuous tone, ‘We don’t allow niggers in here.’ “I also remember attending a revival meeting in the Rev. Henry Jackson’s meeting-house, at New Bedford, and going up the broad isle for a seat, I was met by a good deacon, who told me, in a pious tone, ‘We don’t allow niggers in here.’ Soon after my arrival in New Bedford from [...]

Racism has always been an elusive concept for Blacks to grasp. We can hear and see the obvious xenophobia of [...]