Boston is the hub of a 5.8 million person metro area and 300,000 African Americans call it home.

Compact Boston has the 5th largest financial district in the nation.

The downtown streets, with their maddening layout, actually make sense.  The city is so old it developed cow crossings between ranches before it had an urban plan. Those crossings developed into public streets.

The 60-story John Hancock Building is the tallest building in the region, but the 52-story Prudential Building is the only one with a public observatory deck.

Cambridge has more bookstores per capita than any other city; that’s probably true for its coffee shops as well.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was earned his doctorate degree at Boston University

Malcolm X, then known as Detroit Red, hung out in Boston during his early days as a petty thief and hustler.

Most college graduates stay in this high tech and finance capital.

Metro Boston features headquarters by Liberty Mutual, Gillette, Fleet Bank, John Hancock, EMC and Reebok.

Celebrated persons born her or who attained a major accomplishment here
 
Phyllis Wheatley
First published Black poet in America

Crispus Attucks
First to stand and die for America in the Revolutionary War

George Middleton
Led the (Black) "Bucks of America" in the Revolutionary War

Prince Hall
Founder of African Lodge of Masons in America

Charles Dillaway
19th century educator and griot

William Lloyd Garrison
Abolitionist and publisher

Robert Gould Shaw
Captain of the 54th US regiment (Colored Troops)

Lewis Hayden
Activist, Underground Railroad conductor

William Wells Brown
First published African American novelist

William Monroe Trotter
Civic activist, orator

Harriet Tubman
Most famous leader of the Underground Railroad

Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois
First African American to earn a Harvard doctorate, educator, co-founder of NAACP

Reginald F. Lewis
First Black Billionaire; attended Harvard Law School

Edward Brooke
First post-Reconstruction Black Us Senator

Bill Russell
Champion basketball player/coach of Boston Celtics

Malcolm X
Founder of Muhammad's Mosque #11 in Boston

New Edition
Original R&B vocalists are from here