The David Ruggles Center for History and Education

03/07/2026

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Women’s History Month is a time to pause, reflect, and give flowers to the women whose courage carved pathways where none existed. From freedom fighters and educators to artists, innovators, organizers, and truth tellers, their labor, brilliance, and sacrifice continue to shape the world we move through every day.

Their stories are not footnotes. They are foundations. Their voices are not echoes. They are blueprints for change.

Something special is on the way as we spotlight the pioneers, creators, disruptors, and vanguards who continue to inspire generations. Stay tuned.

10/30/2025

The Greater Springfield NAACP proudly honors Dr. Amilcar Shabazz with the Hennessey Award at this year’s Freedom Fund Banquet.

Dr. Shabazz is a Professor and Undergraduate Program Director in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at UMass Amherst, former President of the National Council for Black Studies, and a leading voice for reparations and social justice for more than four decades.

From his scholarship and global work in over 20 countries, to his leadership in making Juneteenth an official holiday in Massachusetts, to advancing reparative justice in Amherst, Dr. Shabazz continues to uplift truth, equity, and liberation.

His most recent book, In Defiance: 20 Abolitionists You Were Never Taught in School (2025), co-authored with Tom Weiner, is available at:https://www.odysseybks.com/event/tom-weiner-and-amilcar-shabazz-person

Please join us as we celebrate his extraordinary impact and unwavering commitment to justice.

10/10/2025

Join Grow Food Northampton and the The David Ruggles Center for History and Education for a hands-on exploration of the abolitionist roots of our land.

In the 1840s, members of the Northampton Association for Education and Industry (NAEI), an abolitionist community, farmed what is now the Grow Food Northampton Community Farm. They grew sugar beets as an alternative to slave-produced sugar cane, and flax for linen, oil, and cloth.

✨ Hear stories of the NAEI and the early days of Florence’s abolitionist movement.
🥣 Harvest sugar beets and taste sweet molasses.
🌾Try out historic flax-processing tools like a flax break, scutching board, and hatchels!

Free! Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdwDqiBVMkaf5A6Mo4JNb_2hVg17Yimt7K4roCr_rq0-O1wWQ/viewform

09/14/2025

Protesting with Rosa Parks book launch with author John Bollard, this Wednesday at 6:30 at Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity. Register on the Bombyx site.

By STEVE PFARRERFor the GazetteAlong with Martin Luther King, Jr., Ma

05/25/2025

Our museum is OPEN Sundays 12-4. Stop by this afternoon before or after the Sojourner Truth Memorial Committee award ceremony. Come learn about the incredible Sojourner Truth who lived in Florence for 14 years.

05/03/2025

Our Museum is OPEN Sundays 12-4 May-October.. Stop by our museum at 225 Nonotuck St to learn about local abolitionist history and the courageous indidividuals who sought to create a community based on equality of race, gender, religion and class. This includes the stories of national abolitionist icons like our namesake, David Ruggles the intrepid antislavery activist, and Sojourner Truth, who launched her career in Florence. We also tell the story of ordinary heroes, like Basil Dorsey who escaped slavery and settled in Florence, and Almira Stetson who was a teenager in the utopian community that sought to create an alternative to the social inequalities exacerbated by the rise of industrialism in the young United States. Our knowledgeable docents are on hand as you wander through our exhibits. Questions? Email us at [email protected]