Regarded by many as one of the most important figures in African-American history and one of the first great Americans, Crispus Attucks became the first casualty of the American Revolution when he was shot and killed in what came to be known as the Boston Massacre. Some regarded Attucks as the leader and instigator of the event that took place on March 5, 1770 and, whatever his role, he was immortalized as “the first to defy, the first to die.”
A "Crispus Attucks Day" was inaugurated by black abolitionists in 1858. Three years later, a Crispus Attucks Monument was erected on the Boston Common—against opposition from the Massachusetts Historical Society and the New England Historic Genealogical Society, which regarded Attucks as a villain.
Martin Luther King Jr’s introduction to his book “Why We Can’t Wait,” calls Attucks “an example of a man whose contribution to history, though much-overlooked by standard histories, provided a potent message of moral courage.” Attucks was further memorialized in lines from popular music songs such as: 'First man to die for the flag we now hold high was a black man’ from Stevie Wonder’s Black Man, and 'Crispus Attucks, the first blasted' from the Nas song You Can't Stop Me Now.
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