On May 11, 1944, the USS YF-415, from the Hingham Naval Ammunition Depot, sank 14 miles off Nahant with a crew of 30 men while performing a routine dump of obsolete ammunition. 11 of the 17 crew members who were lost were Black sailors. Today the ship sits 240 feet below sea level. View the video of the October 2004 memorial service.
The Hingham Fourth of July parade was led by a Black band and two military units. Many musicians who would continue on to become famous Jazz musicians were stationed or stopped over in Hingham and were part of the Hingham Depot Ammunition Band during the war including John Coltrane (in 1945), Al Grey, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Tommy Ridgely.
Black marines are allowed to be stationed at the Hingham Naval Ammunition Depot when the Korean War needed more soldiers. Prior to this they were not allowed to be stationed at this location.
After Hingham resident and Black realtor Louis T. Bonitto (husband to Shirley (Tuttle) Bonitto), speaks to the South Shore Citizens Club about helping Black families find homes, a Fair Housing Committee is formed.
Hingham hires its first Black police officer, Louis T. Bonitto, son of Shirley (Tuttle) Bonitto and Louis L. Bonitto. Prior to this, Mr. Bonitto was a US Army drill instructor and afterwards, he became one of the South Shore's first Black realtors as well as one of IBM's first Black account executives. Click here to watch Joe Collymore of Harbor Media's 2021 interview with Louis T. Bonitto.
In the wake of national events of 1963, including the murder of Medgar Evars and the March on Washington,the Hingham Chapter of the Massachusetts Freedom Movement was formed. This group spearheaded efforts such as the "Good Neighbor Pledge" (pictured).
Mary DeLuze Fernandes, daughter of David DeLuze (first crane operator at the Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard) follows in her father’s trailblazing footsteps as one of the first (possibly the first!) Black women at Proctor and Gamble in Quincy during her summer job.
Hingham citizens, including members of the South Shore Citizens Club, travel to Boston to join a march led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and to listen to him speak on the Boston Common.
First bus of 16 Hingham METCO students arrives in Hingham with the help of Mrs. Camilla Roundtree (a Hingham Citizen of the Year recipient in 2003) who goes on to serve as the Hingham METCO Director for 40 years. Roundtree was instrumental as a “mentor, chauffeur, homework helper, supporter and advocate” for METCO students. Read more
Fair Housing Act was passed and restrictive covenants deemed unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court. Some neighborhoods in Hingham, such as Bradley Woods, would no longer be able to use restrictive covenants to prevent people of color from buying homes in the neighborhood.
