This legislation is due to the efforts of Black whaling families in Nantucket. The whaling industry brought many Black families to the area looking for work. While Black men are respected for their abilities on whaling ships, Black people continue to face prejudices on land. As one account describes, "While most Nantucket Quakers were genuinely committed to ending slavery and some even favored political rights for African Americans, very few of them accepted the notion of social equality or racial integration."
In the 1830s and 1840s Black Nantucketers advocate relentlessly for the desegregation of schools on the island. Edward Pompey, a Black leader on the island, sends a petition with over 100 signatures to the state legislature asking for action to end segregation. The legislature ultimately passes House Bill 45, which guarantees access to public education for all children in the state, and gives people the right to sue if they have been discriminated against. Schools are still segregated in practice.
In 1846, faced with an expensive legal battle threatened by a local Black captain, the town concedes to let two Black girls attend the only high school on the island.
About ten years later, Massachusetts bans de jure segregation in public schools.