The Precedented Times Series
This interactive discussion series brings together leading historians and contemporary civil rights leaders to investigate how we can learn from history to take action against injustice today. Convened in the very spaces that have witnessed history for generations, these events ask how we can carry on the legacy of promoting liberty and justice for all.
The Precedented Times Series is funded in part by Mass Humanities, which receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Boston Resistance: Then & Now
April 22, 2026 at Old North Church
For the first event in the Precedented Times Series, Diane, founder of the Silence Dogood Project, sits down with Jane Kamensky, Kyera Singleton, Rahsaan D. Hall, Esq., and Carol Rose to examine the forces of oppression and resistance shaping 18th-century Boston. Together they trace how those dynamics continue to resonate, and discuss how we can learn from the past to take action today.
During the discussion, audience members had the opportunity to contribute reflections and responses in real time. These collective insights shape a culminating, community-authored statement—projected onto the exterior of Old North Church as a powerful closing moment, transforming individual voices into a shared public declaration.
Watch the program below…
Speakers
Jane Kamensky
President and CEO of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello
Kyera Singleton
Executive Director of the Royall House and Slave Quarters
Rahsaan D. Hall
President & CEO of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts (ULEM)
Carol Rose
Executive Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts