Honoring Juneteenth: ESC Client Lexington Lyceum Advocates Illuminate Local Abolitionist History

The Lexington Lyceum Advocates (LLA) hosted the “Days of Danger and Triumph for the Robbins/Stone Family,” presented by historian and LLA Board member, Kathleen Dalton.

The audience in attendance learned many new and interesting historical facts about the Abolitionist movement over the course of an hour. Here are my top three:

1. What is a lyceum? LLA Board Vice President Janel Showalter opened the program with a description. Lyceums were a place to discuss contemporary issues and to create greater community bonds in the 1820s and 1830s. The Ellen Stone Building, built by Eli Robbins, and originally called Robbins Hall, houses one of the last intact lyceums on its second floor.
2. The Robbins/Stone, Robbins/Lothrop, and Follen families of East Lexington were abolitionists, women’s rights advocates and supporters of the transcendental movement. Featured speakers at the Lexington Lyceum included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Amos Bronson Alcott. Hannah Robbins and Abigail Alcott were friends, and they worked together to bring Henry David Thoreau to speak at Robbins Hall. Both mothers wanted the best education possible for their daughters. Hannah and Eli Robbin’s four daughters Hannah Maria, Abigail (Robbins-Lothrop by marriage) Ellen (Robbins-Stone by marriage), and Julia where friends of Abigail and Bronson Alcott’s four daughters, Anna, Elizabeth, Louisa May, and Abigail.
3. During her presentation, Ms. Dalton said, “Being an anti-slavery advocate in the 1830s was a dangerous endeavor.” She cited incidents that involved mob violence against abolitionist speakers, including the near hanging of William Lloyd Garrison on the Boston Common in 1835, and the burning to the ground of a building where the annual antislavery convention was held in Philadelphia in 1838, that featured abolitionist speaker Angelina Grimke.

To learn more about the Lexington Lyceum Advocates, and their mission to re-establish the Ellen Stone Building as a modern-day lyceum, go to lexlyceum.org. Empower Success Corps (ESC) was engaged by the LLA in 2024 to facilitate the creation of this nonprofit’s three–to-five-year strategic plan. The event described above was held at the Follen Community Church community room. The Ellen Stone Building requires significant renovations to host current lyceum events. ESC consultants who served on this ESC consulting engagement are Marilyn Stempler and John Deeley.