2025 Codman Award for Lifetime Achievement: Byron Rushing

Byron Rushing is a longtime community leader, public historian, and advocate for equity whose career has been deeply rooted in preserving the cultural and architectural heritage of Massachusetts. As a former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he served from 1983 to 2018, Rushing became widely recognized not only for his legislative leadership but also for his commitment to protecting the state’s historic neighborhoods and landmarks. His early work at the Museum of African American History in Boston, where he served as president, helped bring greater public attention to the importance of documenting and preserving African American history in New England.

Throughout his career, Rushing championed historic preservation as a tool for civic engagement, cultural recognition, and economic development. From 1972 to 1985, he was President of the Museum of African-American History. Under his direction, the Museum of African-American History purchased and began the restoration of the African Meeting House, the oldest extant Black church building in the United States. In 1979, Rushing oversaw the lobbying effort in Congress to establish the Boston African American National Historical Site, a component of the National Park Service. Rushing led the Museum in the study of the history of Roxbury; the Museum conducted the archaeological investigation of the Southwest Corridor for the MBTA. As a legislator he sponsored the creation of Roxbury Heritage State Park, which received a Preservation Award in 2020. Rushing consistently emphasized that preservation was not simply about bricks and mortar, but about honoring the lived experiences of communities whose histories had often been marginalized or overlooked.

Rushing’s legacy in historic preservation extends beyond specific projects; he has shaped how preservation is understood as part of a broader struggle for social justice. By connecting preservation to affordable housing, neighborhood stability, and cultural pride, he expanded its relevance to diverse communities across Massachusetts. His vision underscored that historic preservation is most powerful when it safeguards not only buildings but also the stories, traditions, and identities of the people who give them meaning.

Retired, Rushing stays involved in this work: working to revitalize the Roxbury Historical Society and its mission to tell the history of all the people who have lived in its geography and working with the First Church, Roxbury, to research and publish the history of Indigenous and African enslavement in colonial Roxbury.