Battle of Lexington and Concord: America 250

This was my first time to watch the Battle of Lexington and Concord Reenactment even though I live twenty minutes away. I have always wanted to watch this but it seemed to fall too close to the Boston Marathon which goes through my town.

This year was different. It’s the America 250th, our Semiquincentennial, and the Battle of Lexington and Concord was the first battle of the American Revolution! The enthusiasm was real. The crowds and the participants in costume were record setting.

One observation that I noted was the lack of diversity in both the people in costume (which, to be fair, is historically accurate), but also in the audience. Lexington has a high Asian population, but I didn’t see many Asians. And even less so Black Americans and Latinos.

In 2022, Asian Americans constituted about 30% of Lexington, Massachusetts’ population, with the Asian population reaching over 10,000 residents, according to data from The Lexington Observer and the 2020 Census. Specifically, the 2020 census reported that 11,416 individuals in Lexington identified as Asian, an increase of 82.9% from 2010, notes a report in the Boston Globe.

I talked to my neighbor, who is Black, about it and she thinks that there isn’t a place for someone Black to join in the reenactment. During this time of slavery, free Blacks in New England were still fearful of being caught by slavecatchers and returned to the South. Black Americans like herself also would have low interest in an event that is so white-dominant.

We also wondered if Trump’s administration, with its war on immigrants, keeps Latinos at home. It’s no secret that ICE abducted a Tufts graduate student not so long ago.

Still, the Battle at Lexington was a sight to behold. The costumes are historically accurate. The muskets are firing blanks, but the smoke and noise are real! The American Revolution feels like it’s happening in real time.

And in some ways, it actually is!

p.s. Related posts:

I Walk the Black Heritage Trail in Boston

Lessons From The Boston Freedom Trail

Visiting the exact location of the Boston Massacre: A Unit on the American Revolution

17 American Revolution Books for Kids & Boston Freedom Trail Guide

12 Great American Revolution Chapter Books for Kids

Walden Pond and Black History Month

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