Black Bostonians and Critical Patriotism

Black in Boston and Beyond

In this episode Hettie V. Williams is in conversation with Dr. Ben Railton about the concept of critical patriotism. Dr. Williams is the director of the Trotter Institute at UMass Boston and Railton is Professor of English Studies at Fitchburg State University a public institution in Fitchburg Massachusetts. He is also the author of Of Thee I Sing: The Contested History of American Patriotism (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) in which he claims that there are four competing concepts of American patriotism including critical, active, mythic, and celebratory. Railton argues that critical patriotism is the type of patriotism operationalized to “move the nation closer to its ideals” through critique and highlighting the “nation’s shortcomings” or flaws. African Americans he further contends have been central to this history of critical patriotism from the acts of Crispus Attucks during the American Revolution to the writings of James Baldwin in the mid-twentieth century. Railton identifies several Black Bostonians as practitioners of these four types of patriotism including Attucks, Phillis Wheatley, Elizabeth Freeman (MumBet), and David Walker. For more about Railton’s book click here Of Thee I Sing and another example of Black critical patriotism here Black Critical Patriotism and on the tourist site he mentions click here The Black Heritage Trail #BlackBostonians #BlackFreedom #BlackCriticalPatriots