April 19, 2025 marks the semiquincentennial, or 250th anniversary, of the historic battles of Concord and Lexington. To mark the occasion, from April through June 2025, in collaboration with the Town Archives, the William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library will present an exhibition on Concord’s April 19 anniversary traditions. The exhibition features a lecture by Michael D. Hattem, a historian of the American Revolution and historical memory. We are excited to share some highlights from anniversary events held in Concord over the past 250 years. We hope they will get you in the spirit of the upcoming festivities!
In 1990, two large commercial development projects threatened the historical and ecological integrity of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Woods, an area of 2,680 acres surrounding Walden Pond. Under the leadership of recording artist Don Henley, the nonprofit Walden Woods Project was founded. The organization launched a successful national advocacy and fundraising campaign to preserve the endangered sites.
The American Revolution, a new six-part, 12-hour series directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt and written by Geoffrey Ward will premiere on PBS on November 16, 2025. The series examines how America’s creation turned the world upside-down. Thirteen British colonies on the Atlantic Coast rose in rebellion, won their independence, and established a new form of government that radically reshaped the continent and inspired centuries of democratic movements around the globe.
On April 19, 1775, an estimated twenty to forty colonists of African or Native American descent fought in the first battle of the American Revolution. On that historic day, those men, often termed “Patriots of Color,” joined approximately 4,000 other men fighting British Regular soldiers along the “Battle Road” from Concord to Boston. Over the last 250 years, racism and historical bias have effectively ignored or trivialized the contributions of those men and many other people of color in the historic struggle that produced the United States. To understand who the Patriots of Color were, how they contributed to the American Revolution, and why they chose to do so, we must examine their social context.
