Yours for the oppressed:  Charles B. Ray, the most significant Falmouth native you’ve never heard of

Join us for an engaging lecture exploring the life and legacy of Charles Bennett Ray (1807–1886)—a prominent Black abolitionist, newspaper editor, minister, and civil rights advocate—and his important connections to Falmouth, Massachusetts. Ray was a leading voice in the 19th-century struggle for freedom and equality, serving as co-editor of The Colored American, one of the most influential Black newspapers of its time, and working closely with figures such as Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.

This talk will examine Ray’s abolitionist work, his role in Black activism in New England, and how Falmouth fit into his broader story of resistance, community building, and reform. Through local history and national context, the lecture will highlight how Ray’s efforts helped shape the antislavery movement and why his story remains relevant today.

Non-members $20/Museums on the Green Members $10.

Related: Untold Tale of Falmouth – Falmouth’s Abolitionists 

Bio:

Sarah Lynn Patterson, assistant professor of English at University of Massachusetts Amherst where she studies nineteenth-century African American literature, women’s literature and reform movements. She is co-editor of The Colored Conventions Movement: Black Organizing in the Nineteenth Century (UNC Press, 2021). She will offer a literary and visual history of Ray’s commonly overlooked authorship and the relative rarity of his iteration of publicness.

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