Hassie Benjamin Haith Jr. (born 1942), also known as Boston Ben, is an American activist, social worker, and designer of the

Juneteenth flag The Juneteenth flag is a symbol for the Juneteenth holiday in the United States. The first version was created in 1997 by activist Ben Haith and that early version was displayed in 1997. The present version was first flown in 2000. The colors a ...

. Haith has been active in anti-crime groups since the 1980s. He is also the founder of the National

Juneteenth Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States, federal holiday in the United States. It is celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the End of slavery in the United States, ending of slavery in the United States. The holiday's n ...

Celebration Foundation.

Career

Activism

Haith is a

grass roots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...

community activist who publicly identifies and critiques racial disparity. He is active in anti-crime activities and he has been critical of law enforcement. Throughout his life he has advocated for investigations of the police. In 1983, when he was 40 years old, he ran for public office for the first time. Haith ran for the District 7 city council seat, which represented a predominantly African American section of Boston. He described himself as a community activist who also owned an advertising agency with his wife. He ran his campaign out of a tent near

Dudley Station Historic District Dudley Station Historic District is a historic district on Washington, Warren, and Dudley Streets in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The central feature of the district is Dudley Square station (now Nubian s ...

. In 1986, he advocated for black areas of Boston to secede from the city. In 2008 Haith and others camped out in the empty apartments located in the Lenox Street projects and Orchard Park in Roxbury. The goal of the action was to end the " Stop Snitching" culture by getting neighbors to " drop a dime" when they saw illegal activity.

Anti-LGBT controversy

In April 1985 Haith spoke out against a gay male couple who provided

foster care Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home ( residential child care community or treatment centre), or private home of a state- certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent", or with a family mem ...

for two young boys in Boston. Haith wanted publicity for his run for City Council, so he contacted the editors at the ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'' and complained that two boys were placed with a male couple in his neighborhood. In an article written by the Boston Globe reporter Ken Cooper. Haith said that he was "completely opposed" to gay foster care because "it was a breakdown of the society and its values and morals." The publicity led Massachusetts governor

Michael Dukakis Michael Stanley Dukakis ( ; born November 3, 1933) is an American politician and lawyer who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history and only the s ...

to order the boys removed from the home the next day. The Associated Press picked up the story, and ultimately, the gay couple lost custody of the children. The next month, seven of the nine members of Roxbury Highlands Neighborhood Association Inc., penned an

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page," is a type of written prose commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and online publications. They usually represent a writer's strong and focused opinion on an issue of relevance to a targeted a ...

which was also published in the ''Boston Globe''. In the editorial, the members stated that they felt "the need to refute the continued assertions of ... Haith to represent this association or claim our support for his single-minded, divisive crusade against the gay foster parents." They also accused the ''Globe'' and reporter Ken Cooper of "...creating the very controversy it purports to report" and called for the ''Globe'' to cover "the issue of gay foster placements" with "depth and sensitivity."

Juneteenth

Haith founded the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation, and he led the holiday's first Juneteenth flag-raising ceremony in Boston's Roxbury Heritage State Park in 2000. Haith designed the Juneteenth flag in 1997, and in 2000 (after the addition of the text June 19, 1865), he copyrighted the design.

References

External links

Video News – Bias in covering Roxbury crime (Ben Haith)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haith, Ben 1942 births Living people African-American founders American founders Activists from Boston Flag designers African-American activists Anti-LGBTQ activists Juneteenth American community activists LGBTQ rights in Massachusetts