Crispus Attucks was born in 1723 and was killed on March 5, 1770 at the Boston Massacre.
Attucks had become a sailor and laborer, and is remembered for being part of a crowd of 30 or more workers protesting against the presence of British troops in Boston. Colonial sailors resented the presence of the British because of the danger of press gangs. Other workers in Boston were disturbed because British soldiers worked part-time jobs at low wages in order to supplement their army pay, which potentially took away jobs and drove down wages for the colonial workers. Revolutionaries such as Samuel Adams actively encouraged these protest against the soldiers.
Tensions had been rising over the weekend when the crowd appeared before the British barracks, where some teenage boys were involved in an incident with the soldiers. Attucks has been often depicted as one of the leaders of the crowd, waving a club and urging an attack on the outnumbered troops. Eventually, despite attempts by their officer to prevent it, the eight soldiers of the 29th Regiment of Foot fired, killing five members of the crowd: Attucks was one of the men.
Samuel Adams's cousin, John Adams, successfully defended the British soldiers against a charge of murder.
Samuel Adams, on the other hand, gave the event the name of the Boston Massacre and assured that it would not be forgotten. The five who were killed were buried as heroes in the Granary Burying Ground, despite laws against burying blacks with whites.
The Boston Massacre was an important event that underscored the commitment of ordinary Americans to the ideas of the coming revolution.
Martin Luther King, Jr. referred to Crispus Attucks in the introduction of Why We Can't Wait as a specific example of a man whose contribution to history has been overlooked by standard histories.