african american walking tour boston

Boston's Black Heritage Trail: The Complete Guide

TripSavvy / Violet Smirnova

Boston’s Black Heritage Trail, part of the Boston African American Historic Site, offers the opportunity to go back in history to explore the city’s 19th century African American culture. This community largely resided in the Beacon Hill neighborhood , thus why that is exactly where this 1.6-mile walking tour takes place.

Along the Black Heritage Trail, you’ll learn all about what African Americans went through with civil rights during this time period, from important members of the community, to details about the Underground Railroad and the abolition movement. Many of the stops on this tour were actual places escaped slaves hid at along the Underground Railroad.

How to Visit

Visiting the Black Heritage Trail is free, as the National Park Service , located at 46 Joy Street, provides free, 90-minute guided tours during the spring and summer months. You can also take a self-guided tour at any time of year.

Also at 46 Joy Street is the Museum of African American History , which is actually inside one of the trail stops, the Abiel Smith School. There is a cost for admission to explore the museum: $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students and free for ages 12 and under.

Stops on the Black Heritage Trail

There are 10 official stops along the Black Heritage Trail, each found below. Regardless of how you choose to explore the Black Heritage Trail, keep in mind that many of the historic homes along the way are private residences, so you won’t be able to actually go inside them. However, the entire neighborhood you’ll walk through is beautiful and you’ll get to learn about the history of this community along the way. You will, however, be able to enter both the Abiel Smith School and the African Meeting House.

Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial

Zen Rial / Getty Images 

Colonel Robert Gould Shaw led the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the Civil War’s first African American unit. This memorial was built in 1897 to commemorate this group of men, who marched down Beacon Street. More on their story can be found in the award-winning movie, “Glory.”

George Middleton House

h2kyaks / Flickr /  CC BY-NC 2.0

The George Middleton House is named after — you guessed it — Colonel George Middleton, an American Revolutionary War veteran. He and Louis Glapion, a Black hairdresser, built the two-family together and finished in 1787. Middleton was the leader of an all-Black unit known as the “Bucks of America.” Once the war was over, Governor John Hancock honored Middleton for his service and he then went on to fight against slavery as a civil rights activist.

The Phillips School

Back in the 1800s, the Phillips School was known as one of the best in Boston. While it was originally built in 1824 as an all-White school, it became one of the first schools to accept African American students in 1855 once Massachusetts state law put an end to segregation in city schools. Today, the Phillips School is a private residence.

John J. Smith House

John J. Smith was born free and moved to Boston from Richmond, VA in 1848. He was an abolitionist and a key player in fighting slavery, with his home being a stop along the Underground Railroad as he worked to get escaped slaves to freedom. He eventually went on to become a Massachusetts State Representative. 

Charles Street Meeting House

The Charles Meeting House is a historic church, previously known in 1807 as the Third Baptist Church of Boston with a majority-White congregation. In the 1830s, an abolitionist named Timothy Gilbert was expelled from the church after inviting African American parishioners into his pew, which was against the customs of the time. This church later became known as an abolitionist hub and was bought by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Many famous African Americans spoke here, including Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.

Lewis and Harriet Hayden House

Lewis and Harriet Hayden, husband and wife, escaped slavery from Kentucky and made their way to what is now Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. As abolitionist leaders, they helped slaves escape to freedom by welcoming them into their home as a stop along the Underground Railroad. Their home was visited by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1853 as she was working on her novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

John Coburn House

The John Coburn House was built in 1844 for John Coburn and his family. As part of Boston’s Black community, he was known as a local business owner and was a part of organizations like the New England Freedom Association. His home was also used as a stop along the Underground Railroad, protecting runaway slaves as they escaped to safety.

Smith Court Residences

The five houses that make up the Smith Court Residences are great examples of the types of homes that Boston’s African American community lived in during the 19th century. The four single-family homes were built from 1799 to 1853 and were home to prominent African Americans, including William Cooper Nell, the first American published Black historian, and abolitionist James Scott. And while the Beacon Hill of today is one of the city’s most expensive neighborhoods, the fifth building, an apartment complex, was built in an effort to create affordable housing available for rent. Affordable is not a word synonymous with this neighborhood today! 

The Abiel Smith School

Tim Pierce / Public Domain 

The Abiel Smith School was the United States’ very first public school built specifically for African American children. It was funded by a gift left behind by Abiel Smith, a White philanthropist who passed away in 1812. Today, this building is part of the Museum of African American History, which anyone can visit to learn even more about this part of history.

The African Meeting House

The African Meeting House was built in 1806 and is the United States’ oldest African American church. It was a significant destination for abolitionist events and figures, including William Lloyd Garrison, Maria Stewart, Frederick Douglas and Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Prior to the opening of the Abiel Smith School, African American children in the neighborhood went to school here and now its the home of the Museum of African American History. This is another stop along the trail that visitors can explore.

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The Black Heritage Trail: A walking tour deep into Boston history

The trail leads visitors through beacon hill and offers a glimpse of the 19th-century black experience..

A WARM WIND WHIPS around the Massachusetts State House, blowing a newspaper page down Beacon Street, westward toward the shops on Charles. The magnificent glowing dome, gilded in 23-karat gold, seems equal to the sun. Beneath it, the solemn affairs of state are taking place.

Opposite the State House is a darker edifice, striking and symbolic of the most fundamental questions of government and citizenship. The Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial is dedicated to the first all-Black corps of soldiers from the Northeast to fight in the Civil War. They fought for slavery’s abolition — and for a union that would recognize them as citizens.

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While unveiled in 1897 to the acclaim of Bostonians, the bronze relief does not escape today’s examination of monuments within a broader conversation and reckoning on racism. The memorial foregrounds the soldiers’ white commander, stressing a racial and social hierarchy even as it’s meant to illuminate the dignity of the soldiers.

The Black men depicted in the statue, made by renowned sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, reflect the mostly young men who marched in formation through the streets of Boston to the Common in May of 1863. There on the green, thousands had come to see them off before their voyage into slave-holding South Carolina, where they would wage an assault on Fort Wagner. Nearly half the regiment would be lost. They look resolute. Above them, in the sculpture, is an angel. Behind them and not represented in the monument are the whole communities from which they come, and which they represent, including the Boston Black community.

Here begins Boston’s Black Heritage Trail — a walking tour created by the Museum of African American History that winds its way through the North slope of Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. The area was home for more than a century to a free Black community, one of the most active such communities in the nation. The trail’s sites focus on life before and after the Civil War. Highlights include the museum’s African Meeting House; the Abiel Smith School, the first public school established for Black children in the United States; and former residences, a number of which served as important stations of the Underground Railroad, the vast network of contacts, safe houses, and routes used by fugitives in pursuit of freedom. The 1.6-mile trail, which can be walked in about two hours, comprises 14 historic sites. Maps and information can be found online and at the Museum of African American History. I suggest walking it in good weather.

I am following the trail for the first time, though I have lived in Boston for years, and am a reader of Black and African diasporic history. I have attended unforgettable programs at the African Meeting House. I have walked past the Shaw memorial more times than I can count. I have stopped at times to gaze upon the bronze faces, on my way downtown, to the State House, or to a wonderful shoe store that existed on Beacon Street when I was an undergraduate at Emerson College. Then, I did not place the monument within the larger framework of the trail.

How did following the entire trail escape me? Did my association of Beacon Hill with the history of Boston Brahmins, with power and wealth, with the industrialists who by and large opposed racial equality because of their ties to Southern cotton, keep me from walking its streets? Did I have the feeling of not belonging on those slopes in the 20th century, on the Beacon Hill of impossible rents (for me), flower shops, and antiques stores? Am I guilty, perhaps, of not seeing something because it is so close to me in proximity? There on Beacon Hill was and is a textbook of the 19th-century Black experience. Am I redeemed if I admit that the more recent and practical question of finding on-street parking has more than once stopped me? (I strongly recommend taking the subway to Park Street Station on the Red Line, a short walk from the Shaw memorial.) No matter, here I am, finally on the trail, map in hand.

The trail’s second stop, the George Middleton House, sits snuggled between two red brick buildings, likely built after the house was erected in 1787 by Middleton, a Black hero of the Revolutionary War and esteemed activist. It is the oldest standing house built by African Americans on Beacon Hill — in fact, it is the oldest house on Beacon Hill, period. There is a particular sweetness to the three-story wooden structure, with wide windows gazing out onto Pinckney Street. I am standing in front of the house, waiting for the spirit of Middleton to speak to me, when the most unexpected thing happens (I cannot guarantee this will occur on all tours): A tall man emerges from the front door. He finds me gazing at the house, now a private residence. I imagine he is accustomed to such behavior, living in a historic house.

We exchange greetings and he shares with me his name and affiliation: Stephen Judge, fifth owner of the house. He lives there with his husband. Here is the story Judge relays: Middleton shared the house with his partner, Louis Glapion, who hailed from the Caribbean. Glapion, I’ve since discovered, worked as a hairdresser, an occupation of high standing in the Black community of the day, which would have made both Middleton and Glapion respected members of the contemporary Black community. Several sources support the inclusion of Middleton and Glapion in queer histories.

This information requires the consideration of assumptions I didn’t realize I had about what I would find on the Black Heritage Trail. Here I was expecting musty history. I had never heard of Middleton, this early leader of Boston’s African American community. Glapion’s origins remind me of the great diversity of Black Boston in the 18th century (and the centuries before and after), with members coming from all regions of North America, from the Caribbean, and other parts of world. I am reminded that American Blackness has never been monolithic in identity or ideology — which challenges the white supremacist myth of the “natural” hierarchies of race.

What did unite 19th-century Black Bostonians, however, were common goals including racial equality foremost; the abolition of the institution and economics of slavery; the protection and provision of aid to fugitives; ongoing advocacy for the education of their children in the long struggle for equal school rights; and the preservation of their rights as citizens, particularly after the federal 1850 Fugitive Slave Act that required escaped slaves be returned to their enslavers, and after the 1857 US Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case, which effectively stripped citizenship from Black people. The court ruled that African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States.

I carry my new awareness, as well the historically contested ideas of Black freedom and citizenship, to the next stop of the trail a few blocks away. The Phillips School is a beautiful brick building on top of which sits a cupola designed to increase the natural light and flow of air within the space beneath it. Granite stairs lead into the school, also now a private residence. When it was constructed in 1824, it was seen as one of the best public schools in Boston, educating primarily children from nearby wealthy families. The Phillips School would not be integrated until 1855 after a tireless fight by Black parents. It ended with the Massachusetts Legislature banning segregated schools, the first law in the country to do so. (It would be nearly 100 years until the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, which declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional nationwide.)

Much has been written about the critical struggle for equal school rights in Boston and the nation, and the important laws that have emerged as the result of the advocacy of Black communities. Standing before the Phillips School, I try to imagine the experience of the children and young people who personified desegregation, the ones who walked into the schools for the educations their parents so wanted for them, despite the animus raging around them. I try to see girls like the young Sarah Roberts, whose story is beautifully rendered in The First Step, a picture book written by Susan Goodman and illustrated by E.B. Lewis. Her expulsion from her neighborhood and all-white school in 1848 ultimately led to Roberts v. Boston, the first case to challenge a segregated school system.

The Phillips School is the first school on the Black Heritage Trail. The second, near the trail’s end, is the Abiel Smith School, one of the most significant for several reasons. But there is more between the schools for me to see and consider: a handful of sites including The John J. Smith House, the Charles Street Meeting House, and the Lewis and Harriet Hayden House.

THE JOHN J. SMITH HOUSE stands a large edifice with black shutters on its many windows, a second-floor window seat, and a stately black door that metaphorically opens onto history. There is Smith, a Massachusetts state representative. There is Georgiana Smith, his wife, who works for the Freedmen’s Bureau, a federal agency established in 1865 to provide relief to formerly-enslaved people and others after the Civil War. See them creating a home and a hub for community organizing and activism here on Pinckney Street. How to visualize the many people who visited while working on emancipation and abolition, and who walked renewed out of the house onto the cobblestone streets of Beacon Hill? Perhaps en route to the Hayden House?

A glass-arched entryway and dark green door mark the brick house of Lewis and Harriet Hayden on Phillips Street — the sixth stop of the Black Heritage Trail. This door also serves as a passageway to the past, and to one of the most noted stations, or safe houses, of the Underground Railroad, which extended from the South to Canada. The Haydens had themselves been fugitives, from Kentucky, and were among the enslaved who emancipated themselves with the help of fellow abolitionists. Once settled in Boston in the 1850s, they became among the community’s most influential antislavery activists — contributing to Boston’s longstanding reputation as a sanctuary for fugitives.

Women, men, and children mobilized to protect fugitives. In 1836, a group of Black women in Boston, in an incident later called the Abolition Riot, executed a daring rescue of two fugitives who had self-emancipated from Baltimore. When Eliza Small and Polly Ann Bates were brought before a judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the Boston women rioted in the courtroom, creating a path for Small and Bates to be spirited into a waiting carriage that sped away. The day I stand outside the Hayden house, bright yellow flowers rest in the building’s two window boxes.

To walk the Black Heritage Trail is to be reminded of difficult American history, of the daily discrimination and segregation Black people faced; of the brutality of slavery and the slave economic system; of the conditions of Black schools; and challenges and threats to Black lives and Black freedom. To walk the Black Heritage Trail is also to be amazed at what the Boston community has endured and achieved, to acknowledge its ongoing advocacy, organization, vision of freedom, and upholding of American ideals.

“This is one of Boston’s most rewarding walkable histories,” says L’Merchie Frazier, director of education and interpretation at the Museum of African American History.

The trail ends at the twin sites of the African Meeting House, built in 1806, and the Abiel Smith School building completed in 1835. They comprise the museum’s Boston campus (there is another campus on Nantucket). The museum organizes exhibitions, programs, and education activities that “showcase the powerful stories of black families who worshipped, educated their children, debated the issues of the day, produced great art, organized politically and advanced the cause of freedom” as its website so aptly describes.

The African Meeting House, the nation’s oldest existing Black church building, stands as a space of extraordinary history and community. For 19th-century Black Bostonians, it was a think tank and site of worship, a concert and lecture hall, a site of collaboration between Black and white abolitionists, an incubator of rescue missions, the launch pad for emancipatory movements — and the very center of Black Boston.

During visiting hours, the doors of both the meeting house and museum are open to the past, present, and future.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

> The Black Heritage Trail: The Museum of African American History partners with the National Park Service, which offers free guided tours of the trail (currently on hold). Check nps.gov/boaf for updates. Homes on the trail are not open to the public.

> Museum of African American History: The Abiel Smith School and African Meeting House are now open for visitors. Reserve timed tickets at least 24 hours in advances at maah.org .

> The African American Trail Project: This collaborative history project housed atTufts University highlights more than 200 sites across Greater Boston and Massachusetts. Find a map and more information at africanamericantrailproject.tufts.edu .

Danielle Legros Georges, a writer, literary translator, and professor of creative writing at Lesley University, was Boston’s poet laureate from 2015 to 2019. Send comments to [email protected] .

Boston Black Heritage Trail

• 1 Understand
• 4 Get around
• 5.1 Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial
• 5.2 George Middleton House
• 5.3 The Phillips School
• 5.4 John J. Smith House
• 5.5 Charles Street Meeting House
• 5.6 Lewis and Harriet Hayden House
• 5.7 John Coburn House
• 5.8 Smith Court Residences
• 5.9 Abiel Smith School
• 5.10 The African Meeting House
• 6 Stay safe

The Black Heritage Trail is a short walking tour winding visitors through Boston 's Beacon Hill neighborhood. Covering ten sites important in American black history, its 1.6 miles can be completed in an hour or two, depending on how long you spend at each site, and any side trips you might decide to take.

Understand [ edit ]

In 1783, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to declare slavery illegal — mostly out of gratitude for black participation in the American Revolutionary War. When the first federal census was counted in 1790, Massachusetts was the only state in the Union to record no slaves. Subsequently, a sizable community of free blacks and escaped slaves developed in Boston, settling on the north face of Beacon Hill, and in the North End. With a strong abolitionist community, Boston was long considered a desirable destination for southern black slaves escaping slavery via the Underground Railroad .

The free African American community in Boston was concerned with finding decent housing, establishing independent supportive institutions, educating their children, and ending slavery in the rest of the nation. Although some black Bostonians lived in the North End and in the West End north of Cambridge Street, more than half the city’s 2,000 blacks lived on Beacon Hill just below the residences of wealthy whites. The historic buildings along today’s Black Heritage Trail were the homes, business, schools, and churches of a black community that organized from the nation’s earliest years to sustain those who faced discrimination and slavery.

Prepare [ edit ]

The Museum of African American History ( Abiel Smith School ), 46 Joy Street . M-Sa 10AM-4PM . Free .  

Self guided tours are free and available year round. Stop by the Museum of African American History in person for a printed map, or get online and print one yourself . Guided tours, also free and lasting about 90 minutes, are available several times a year during the summer and fall seasons. If your schedule doesn't line up with a guide, you can download a family focused audio tour and listen yourself for only $0.99. The majority of sites on the tour are today private houses and not open to the public. The only sites available for touring are the African Meeting House and the Abiel Smith School.

Get in [ edit ]

Centrally located on Beacon Hill across from the State House, driving is profoundly discouraged . The T is a quick, cheap, and convenient way to access this area of the city. Park Street Station is the closest stop for those taking the Red or Green lines, on the Blue line Government Center and Bowdoin stations are about equidistant, and Downtown Crossing (DTX) is the closest station on the Orange line. See Boston by public transit for more information.

Get around [ edit ]

Walk [ edit ]

Robert gould shaw and 54th regiment memorial [ edit ].

42.357501 -71.063513 1 ( Park and Beacon Streets ). Responding to pressure from black and white abolitionists, President Lincoln admitted African American soldiers into the Union forces in 1863. The 54th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was the first black regiment recruited in the North. On July 18, 1863, the 54th regiment led an assault on Fort Wagner in an attempt to capture Confederate-held Charleston, S.C. In this hard-fought battle, Col. Robert Gould Shaw and many of his soldiers were killed. Sgt. William Carney of New Bedford was wounded while saving the flag from capture. Carney was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery, the first black soldier to receive this honor. This bronze memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens was dedicated May 31, 1897, in a ceremony that included Carney and members of the 54th Regiment.  

George Middleton House [ edit ]

42.358895 -71.065308 2 ( 5–7 Pinckney Street ). Built in 1787 this structure is one of the oldest standing homes on Beacon Hill. George Middleton (1735–1815), one of the original owners, was a Revolutionary War veteran. Middleton led the Bucks of America, one of three black militias that fought against the British. After the war he became an activist and community leader, helping found the Free African Society and serving as the 3rd Grand Master of the Prince Hall Masons, a fraternal order started by black Bostonian Prince Hall.  

The Phillips School [ edit ]

42.358958 -71.067861 3 ( Anderson and Pinckney streets ). This architecture is typical of 1800s Boston schoolhouses. Built in 1824, this was a white-only school until 1855. Black children attended school on the first floor of the African Meeting House or, after 1834, the Abiel Smith School. When the Massachusetts Legislature abolished segregated schools in 1855, the Phillips School became one of Boston’s first integrated schools.  

John J. Smith House [ edit ]

42.358697 -71.069637 4 ( 86 Pinckney St ). Born free in Richmond, Va., John J. Smith (1820–1906) moved to Boston in the late 1840s. He opened a barbershop that became a center for abolitionist activity and a rendezvous point for people escaping on the Underground Railroad. During the Civil War, Smith was a recruiting officer for the all-black 5th Cavalry. He was later elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives for three terms.  

Charles Street Meeting House [ edit ]

42.357964 -71.070623 5 ( Mt. Vernon and Charles streets ). This meeting house was built in 1807 by the white Third Baptist Church of Boston. New England’s segregationist tradition of church seating prevailed. Timothy Gilbert, church member and abolitionist, tested the tradition in the mid-1830s by inviting black friends to his pew one Sunday. Gilbert was expelled. Joined by other white abolitionist Baptists, Gilbert founded the First Baptist Free Church, which became Tremont Temple—considered to be one of the first integrated churches in America.  

Lewis and Harriet Hayden House [ edit ]

42.360204 -71.069068 6 ( 66 Phillips Street ). Lewis Hayden (1816–1889), born enslaved in Lexington, Ky., escaped with his wife Harriet and settled in Boston. Lewis became a leader in the abolition movement, and the Hayden House became an integral stop on the Underground Railroad. The Haydens reportedly kept kegs of gunpowder in their home that they threatened to ignite if slave catchers tried to enter. Hayden also recruited for the 54th Regiment, was a Grand Master of the Prince Hall Masons, and was later elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives.  

John Coburn House [ edit ]

42.36025 -71.066515 7 ( 2 Phillips Street ). John Coburn (1811–1873) was a clothing retailer and community activist. He served as treasurer of the New England Freedom Association, an organization dedicated to helping people escape from slavery. In 1851 he was arrested, tried, and acquitted for the courthouse rescue of Shadrach Minkins, a freedom seeker who was caught in Boston by federal slave catchers empowered by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Coburn was co-founder and captain of the Massasoit Guards, a black military company in 1850s Boston that was a precursor to the 54th Regiment.  

Smith Court Residences [ edit ]

42.360041 -71.065586 8 ( 3, 5, 7, 7A, and 10 Smith Court ). These five homes typify those of black Bostonians in the 1800s. Number 3 : Owner James Scott’s Underground Railroad activity is documented in the records of the Boston Vigilance Committee. Like John Coburn (see 2 Phillips Street ), Scott was arrested, tried, and acquitted for the 1851 rescue of Shadrach Minkins. William Cooper Nell, abolitionist and community leader, also lived at Number 3. Nell, the driving force in the struggle to integrate Boston’s schools in 1855, is considered the nation’s first published black historian. The brick apartment houses on the west end of the court and on the corner of Joy Street typify the tenements that developers built between 1885 and 1915. The apartments provided inexpensive, dense housing units for the waves of late-1880s European immigrants. Except for the Smith Court Residences, most wooden houses were torn down to make way for these four and five-story apartments.  

Abiel Smith School [ edit ]

42.359981 -71.065219 9 ( 46 Joy Street ). White philanthropist Abiel Smith willed money to the city of Boston for educating African American children. The city built this school building with Smith’s legacy. In 1835 Boston’s black children attended the Smith School, which replaced the school in the African Meeting House. The school remained Boston’s black public school until public schools were integrated in 1855.  

The African Meeting House [ edit ]

42.359993 -71.065441 10 ( 8 Smith Court ). The African Meeting House, built by free black laborers in 1806, is considered the oldest surviving black church building in the United States. In the 1800s the building served as the center of religious, social, educational, and political activity for Boston’s free black community. William Lloyd Garrison founded the New England AntiSlavery Society here in 1832. Frederick Douglass spoke here, and it was a recruitment station for the 54th Massachusetts Regiment during the Civil War.  

Stay safe [ edit ]

Take normal big city precautions, but there is little to worry about here in terms of personal safety. Not only is this is one of the wealthiest zip codes in the country, but you're also walking within a stones-throw of all the security within the Capitol building. These sites are all located on a hill, so make sure you're OK with a little light exertion. Take care in inclement weather, those bricks may look beautiful but they can become slippery when wet.

Go next [ edit ]

You're centrally located here in "The Hub of the Universe", and will have no lack of options for what to do next after finishing the tour.

• Walk across Cambridge or Tremont Street and into the heart of Downtown Boston.
• Hop on the Red Line and head south into South Boston , home of the Institute of Contemporary Art .
• Continue exploring black culture at The Museum of Afro American Artists , way off the beaten path in Roxbury .
• Keep walking across the Longfellow bridge and into Cambridge 's Kendall Square.
• Take the B trolley on the Green Line to head into student centered Allston .
• Freedom Trail
• From Plymouth to Hampton Roads , the long story of the antebellum north
• Black Belt , for the African-American heartland in the South

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The Black Heritage Trail ®

Explore boston's free african american community of the nineteenth century through the beacon hill neighborhood they called home..

By Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket

Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket and Boston African American National Historic Site

Welcome to Boston's Black Heritage Trail! This virtual "walking tour" explores the rich history of Boston's nineteenth-century black community of Beacon Hill. The men and women who lived, worked, and gathered at these sites were part of an entrepreneurial, activist, thriving and, above all, free community. Slavery came to an end in Massachusetts in 1783 as a result of legal activism by enslaved men and women such as Elizabeth Freeman and Quock Walker, who used the principles of the American Revolution to claim freedom as their own. Community leaders such as Prince Hall (c.1735-1807) and others spearheaded the effort to unite the free black community on the north slope of Beacon Hill, where a rich tradition of civil rights activism, abolitionism, and leadership flourished throughout the nineteenth century. Join us to virtually visit the homes, schools, and businesses that reveal this essential American history.

The Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial

This monument, dedicated in 1897 is located directly opposite the Massachusetts State House.  It commemorates the 54th Regiment, the first black regiment raised in the North following the Emancipation Proclamation, and its martyred leader, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (1837-1863).

With pressure from black and white abolitionists, President Lincoln officially admitted black soldiers into the United States armed forces in 1863, two years into the Civil War. The 54th Regiment of Massachusetts was the first black regiment to be recruited in the North.

Robert Gould Shaw, a young white officer from a prominent abolitionist family, accepted command of the new regiment. On July 18, 1863, the 54th Regiment led an assault on Fort Wagner as part of the campaign to capture the Confederate city of Charleston, South Carolina. In the hard-fought battle, Colonel Shaw and many members of the regiment were killed. Though they failed to capture the fort, the 54th proved to the nation their skill, courage, and discipline as soldiers.

Sergeant William Carney (1840-1908) of New Bedford was wounded multiple times during the Battle of Fort Wagner in his effort to save the American flag from Confederate capture. Carney's bravery earned him the distinction of the first African American to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Exercises at the Dedication of the Monument to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Infantry, May 31, 1897 Frontispiece Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket

Even once admitted to the army, the men of the 54th Regiment and other black units still faced discrimination. They were not allowed to be commissioned officers and, despite recruitment promises, black soldiers were only offered about half of the pay that white soldiers received. Rather than accept a lower salary, the 54th Regiment served without pay for a year and a half. Ultimately, Congress relented and increased their pay retroactively.

Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial (1897/1910) by Smith, Hamilton Sutton (1857-1924) Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket

This high-relief bronze memorial to Colonel Shaw and the 54th Regiment was erected through a fund established by black community leader and business-owner Joshua Bowen Smith in 1865. The sculpture was created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and the architectural setting was designed by McKim, Mead and White. Shaw's family insisted that the monument represent the enlisted men of the 54th Regiment, not just Colonel Shaw. Saint-Gaudens worked on the monument for fourteen years and took great care to represent each unique soldier.

The 62 names listed on the reverse side of the monument represent the black soldiers who died during the assault on Fort Wagner. Their names were added in 1982.

George Middleton House

Built in 1797, this house is among the oldest extant homes on Beacon Hill. Its original owners were George Middleton (1735-1815), a liveryman, and Louis Glapion, a  barber. George Middleton led an all-black militia company called the Bucks of America during the Revolutionary War. Governor John Hancock presented the Bucks of America with a painted silk flag in recognition for their service, which is now in the collection of Massachusetts Historical Society. Both Middleton and Glapion were also active in the black community's early organizations. Both were members of the African Masonic Order and Middleton was a founder of the African Society in 1796.

Phillips School

Erected in 1824, the Phillips School was only open to white children until 1855.  Prior to 1855, black children who lived in the neighborhood had to attend the school on the first floor of the African Meeting House or the Smith School. When segregated schools were abolished by legislative act in 1855, the Phillips School became one of Boston's first schools with an interracial student body.

Elizabeth Smith was the daughter of abolitionist and community leader, John J. Smith. Elizabeth began teaching at the Phillips School in Beacon Hill in the 1870s and was among the first African American teachers in an integrated Boston Public School. Elizabeth's family home is the next site on the Trail.

John J. Smith House

In the course of his career, John J. Smith (1820-1906) was a barber, an abolitionist, a Civil War recruiter, an elected official and an active community leader within the Beacon Hill black community. He was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1820 and moved to Boston by 1846. He moved to his home at 86 Pinckney Street in 1878 and lived here until he moved to Dorchester in the mid-1890s.

John J. Smith's barbershop served as a hub of abolitionist activity with frequent visitors including U.S. Senator Charles Sumner. Following the Civil War, Smith was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1868, 1869, and 1872 and was appointed to the Boston Common Council in 1878. Smith was also a member and Grand Master of the Prince Hall Masons.

John J. Smith Family Group by Smith, Hamilton Sutton (1857-1924) Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket

John's wife Georgianna participated in the equal school rights campaign of the 1850s and served as president of an organization called the Ladies Benevolent Firm.

John and Georgianna had six children, each of whom went on to be accomplished in their fields: Elizabeth was the first African American teacher at the Phillips School; Georgina was an artist; Florence was a teacher and school principal in Washington, D.C.; Hamilton Sutton was a lawyer, dentist, and photographer; Harriet was a Boston school teacher; and Adelaide was a musician and concert vocalist.

Julia Smith (1885-1980), John J. Smith's granddaughter, spent some time at his Pinckney Street home as a child and was very proud of his work as an abolitionist. Of her grandfather's collaboration with Lewis Hayden on the Underground Railroad, she recalled: "My grandfather had one portion of the cellar fixed so that when these slaveholders would come up, and if Lewis Hayden had an overflow, then he would get the slaves into my grandfather’s house." Lewis Hayden's home is the next site on the Trail.

Lewis and Harriet Hayden House

Lewis Hayden (c.1811-1889) was one of Boston’s most visible and militant African American abolitionists and a close collaborator with John J. Smith. Hayden was born enslaved in Kentucky. He escaped slavery with his second wife Harriet and their son Joseph in 1844 and, by 1846, the Hayden family made their way to Boston. Lewis ran a clothing store and quickly became a leader in the black community. In 1850, the Haydens moved into this house at 66 Phillips (then Southac) Street. The Haydens routinely cared for self-emancipated men, women, and families at their home, which served as a boarding house.

Lewis Hayden by J. S. Conant & Co., Engravers Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket

Lewis Hayden understood the pain of enslavement firsthand. His first wife, Esther Harvey, and his son were sold to U.S. Senator Henry Clay, who sold them into the deep south. Hayden was never able to discover their ultimate whereabouts. In Boston, Hayden became a member of the Prince Hall Masons and, like John J. Smith, served as the Grand Master. Following the Civil War, Lewis Hayden also served a term in the Massachusetts legislature in 1873.

Excerpt, Vigilance Committee Account Book (1850/1855) by Jackson, Francis (1789-1861) Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket

The Vigilance Committee was an organization devoted to assisting people on their journeys from slavery to freedom. Records from the Boston Vigilance Committee, of which Lewis was a member, indicate that scores of people received aid and safe shelter at the Hayden home between 1850 and 1860.

This page records at least one instance in which Hayden was reimbursed by the Boston Vigilance Committee for boarding self-emancipated men and women at his home. Lewis Hayden was one of the men who helped rescue a self-liberated man, Shadrach Minkins, from federal custody after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Hayden also contributed money to militant abolitionist John Brown, in preparation for his raid on Harper’s Ferry.

John Coburn House

John P. Coburn (c.1811-1873) was a clothes dealer and community activist. This home, at 2 Phillips (then Southac) Street, was designed by architect Asher Benjamin and Coburn lived here with his wife Emmaline and their  son Wendell. Coburn ran a clothing shop on Brattle Street and may have operated a gaming house for wealthy Bostonians at his home. As an activist, Coburn was the treasurer of the New England Freedom Association and a member of Boston Vigilance Committee. John P. Coburn was arrested for his alleged role in the rescue of Shadrach Minkins, along with others including Lewis Hayden, but all were eventually acquitted. In the 1850s, John Coburn helped establish a militia company for the black community called the Massasoit Guards, despite the state's refusal to recognize black men's right to serve in the military.

David Walker - Maria Stewart House

At this site, now 81 Joy Street, stood the home in which pioneering activists David Walker (c.1785-1830) and Maria Stewart (1803-1879) lived. David Walker was born free in North Carolina and witnessed the cruelties of slavery firsthand. He moved to Boston in the 1820s and quickly became an active member of the Massachusetts General Colored Association, an organization dedicated to ending slavery and pursuing equal rights. Walker is best known for his pamphlet, "Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World" in which he called on black citizens, free and enslaved, to end slavery immediately and claim equal rights in America. Maria Stewart was among the first American women to speak publicly before audiences of men and women on issues of politics, racial equality, and women's rights.  She delivered speeches throughout Boston, including at the African Meeting House.

The Rights of All The Rights of All (1829-10-09) by Cornish, Samuel (1795-1858), editor Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket

David Walker also helped support communication between black communities as the Boston "authorised agent" for the first black newspaper, Freedom's Journal and its successor, The Rights of All.

The Rights of All Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket

The list of agents reveals the broad reach of the newspaper, with representatives from Maine to Louisiana and international agents in Canada, England, and Hayti.

In addition to his anti-slavery activism, David Walker ran a Boston clothing shop, advertised here. To distribute his pamphlet, "Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World," in the South, Walker sewed copies into the lining of the jackets he sold to sailors. Then, in Southern port cities, they could quickly and discretely distribute Walker's pamphlet to free and enslaved communities.

Holmes Alley

Holmes Alley is a narrow pathway that connects South Russell Street with Smith Court, where the African Meeting House is located. Here, on the South Russell Street side, the alley was built through a house. Such alleyways are common in Beacon Hill, although most are now gated and private. In the 19th century, however, the maze of alleyways through and around the buildings allowed neighborhood residents to deftly, and sometimes secretly, navigate. When the black community was threatened by bounty hunters who were empowered by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, pathways like this one proved useful for evading notice or capture.

Abiel Smith School

The Abiel Smith School opened in 1835 and replaced the lower level of the African Meeting House as the site of the school serving the black community of Boston. The Smith School is now one of the historic sites that makes up the Museum of African American History. The building is named for Abiel Smith, a white merchant who bequeathed part of his estate to the City of Boston to support education for the black community. In the 1840s, the Smith School was at the center of the community's campaign to integrate Boston's public schools. 

Activist and Beacon Hill resident William Cooper Nell led protests, boycotts, and petition drives in order to secure equal school rights for black and white children. The 1849 lawsuit on behalf of five-year-old Sarah Roberts was unsuccessful and established the judicial precedent for the "separate but equal" principle, but the community was successful in legally securing integrated schools in 1855. Following that decision, both the Phillips School and the Smith School soon began operating as integrated schools.

First Independent Baptist Church, Belknap Street (1843) by Dickinson, S. N. Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket

The African Meeting House

The African Meeting House was built in 1806 and served as a spiritual, cultural, political, and institutional hub for the Beacon Hill black community. It was home to the First African Baptist Church of Boston and soon became an active gathering place for meetings of all kinds - from anti-slavery organizing to concerts and celebrations. 

Many of the leading black activists and abolitionists of the nineteenth century spoke at the African Meeting House. Frederick Douglass visited the Meeting House many times. In one speech delivered there in December 1860 on the brink of Civil War, Douglass said: "...All methods of proceeding against slavery, politics, religion, peace, war, Bible, Constitution, disunion, Union -- every possible way known in opposition to slavery is my way."

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was a poet, author, and lecturer as well as a conductor on the Underground Railroad and an anti-slavery activist. Harper spoke at the African Meeting House at least three times between 1854 and 1864.

When the 54th Regiment was authorized in January of 1863, black soldiers came from all over the country to enlist and the African Meeting House was one of the sites where young men like John H. Wilson could sign up to serve. Frederick Douglass and John J. Smith were among those who traveled widely as recruiters, encouraging men to go to Massachusetts to enlist. On May 28, 1863, the 54th Regiment paraded through Boston before departing for service in South Carolina, a moment now memorialized in the Robert Gould Shaw 54th Regiment Monument, which was the first site on the Trail.

Thanks for "walking" with us!

The members of the Beacon Hill black community of the 18th and 19th centuries and their fellow abolitionists helped expand the meaning of freedom and civil rights, both locally in Boston, and for the nation.  Thank you for exploring the Black Heritage Trail and sharing in this important American history! When in Boston, visit the Museum of African American History and walk the Trail with our partners at Boston African American National Historic Site.  And whether near or far, consider these sites part of your story and your history!

Samantha Gibson , Manager of Education and Interpretation Cara Liasson , Collections Associate L’Merchie Frazier , Director of Education and Interpretation Boston African American National Historic Site © Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket Learn more: www.maah.org Visit us: 46 Joy Street, Boston, Massachusetts 29 York Street, Nantucket, Massachusetts

Freedom Rising: Remembering the Abolition Movement and Campaign for Civil Rights in Boston, 1770s - 1930s

Museum of african american history, boston and nantucket.

Sojourner Truth Memorial Committee

African-American Heritage Trail

The African-American Heritage Trail commemorates the Florence of Sojourner Truth's time. The trail begins Sojourner Truth Memorial Statue at the corner of Park and Pine Streets.

Click on the points on the map to learn more. If you would like to take a self-guided walking tour, you can download this pdf African-American Heritage Trail map or check out our mobile walking tour . You can also view a video playlist of our walking tour videos.

1. SOJOURNER TRUTH MEMORIAL STATUE 2. CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH & PINE GROVE 3. SILK MILL DAM 4. BASIL DORSEY'S HOUSE 5. CYNTHIA DORSEY'S HOUSE 6. HENRY ANTHONY'S HOUSE 7. DAVID RUGGLES' HOUSE 8. LAURA KNOWLES WASHINGTON'S HOUSE 9. NORTHAMPTON WATER CURE 10. NONOTUCK SILK COMPANY 11. SARAH ASKIN'S HOUSE 12. NORTHAMPTON ASSOCIATION SILK MILL 13. 191 NONOTUCK STREET 14. ELISHA HAMMOND'S HOUSE 15. SAMUEL HILL'S HOUSE 16. SOJOURNER TRUTH'S HOUSE 17. PARK STREET CEMETERY 18. CHARLES ROBERT DORSEY'S HOUSE A. ROSS HOMESTEAD B & C. WILLSON & COOPER D. BENSON COTTAGE

10 Comments

Black history tours in the u.s. – she's going somewhere.

[…] African American Heritage Trail of Florence, MA Self-guided and mobile walking tours honoring Sojourner Truth […]

Juneteenth Music and Events - The Boston Musical Intelligencer

[…] be visited in Boston HERE and HERE, Oak Bluffs HERE, the Florence Neighborhood of Northampton HERE, and the Upper Housatonic Valley HERE. The Museum of African American History HERE has campuses […]

What distance does the trail cover? How long does it normally take to complete the full loop?

The trail is 1.5 miles. Our tour usually takes about 1.5 hours to complete, with time for stops along the way.

African American Voices in Early Boston – Social Post News

[…] may be visited in Boston HERE and HERE, Oak Bluffs HERE, the Florence Neighborhood of Northampton HERE, and the Upper Housatonic Valley HERE. The Museum of African American History HERE has campuses in […]

Massachusetts Celebrates Black Heritage in February

[…] African American Heritage Trail (Florence) […]

Gavin Foster

Hello — an inspiring site.

Black History Month Boston | Black History Month Massachusetts

[…] Florence, Massachusetts is home to the Sojourner Truth Memorial, as well as a self-guided walk that remembers the famed women’s activities and abolitionist. On the corner of Park and Pine Streets, visitors can find the statue of Truth, who bought a home in the village after running away to freedom. The tour map is available here. […]

Paula Townsend

Are the trails open now 5/26-5/28?

Anna Newman

Our African American Heritage Trail is open all year round, and you can follow the map on our website or view the videos in our virtual tour. We also offer guided tours throughout the year. If you subscribe to our mailing list at http://sojournertruthmemorial.org/sign-up-for-our-mailing-list/ , you can get notifications of upcoming tours.

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Black Heritage Trail

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Black Heritage Trail - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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Black Heritage History of Boston Walking Tour

Tour Information

The Underground Railroad was not a railroad or underground, but it did have real live conductors who gave their lives so enslaved persons could be free. The Underground Railroad is a symbolic name used for over 200 years to break away from slavery.  With this tour, you will not be looking through a bus window, but you will be walking the narrow streets and alleyway that the enslaved persons walked in the dark late at night so they would not be caught and sent back into slavery.

The city's black heritage trail explores Beacon Hill's rich historic African American neighborhood. You will explore and stroll past a rich tapestry of residential and church history, architecture, and learn about Beacon Hill's special place in history as one of the nation's stops along the African American Underground Rail Road and the courageous people who helped achieve the enslaved persons' freedom.

• Park St Church - home of some the abolitionists  
• Arlington Street Church
• The Granary Burial Ground
• Grave of the five men from the Boston Massacre
• Race Set Free Statue
• Crispus  Attucks Monument
• Robert Gould Shaw & the 54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial
• The House of the Hidden Chamber
• Holmes Alley
• George Middleton-Lewis  Glapion  House
• Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)
• and more...

Tour information

Where: Tour meet at on the Boston Common outside the Park St. MBTA Station.

Duration: Approximately 2 hours. Tour distance is approximately 1 mile (1.6K)

When: PRIVATE ONLY. Please contact us to book - [email protected]

Save even more money with a Boston tourist discount pass .

And much, much more

North america, united kingdom & ireland, middle east & india, asia & oceania.

Walk Into History®

Boston Common Visitor Information Center 139 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02111

11 am, 12 noon, 1 pm  Purchase Tickets  

African-American Patriots®

February, select Saturdays-Sundays: 10:45 a.m.

Revolutionary Women

March, select Saturdays-Sundays: 10:45 a.m.

Walk Into History® - Reverse

ArtsBoston Booth Faneuil Hall Marketplace  Boston, MA 02109

Through October 29 Saturdays & Sundays 10:30 am Fridays - Sundays 11:30 am

ArtsBoston Booth Faneuil Hall Marketplace  Boston, MA 02109 

Saturdays through December 30, 1:30 pm

Private & Custom

Historic pub crawl private tour.

Private tours Mondays - Thursdays, reservations required, based upon availability.

Thursdays - Saturdays through October 28 & Monday, October 30 6 pm (Group tours available via reservation)

Historic Holiday Stroll

Nov. 17 - Dec. 30 Select Fridays & Saturdays 3:30 p.m.

Freedom Trail Tour App

Walk into history® web tickets only tour.

Brewer Fountain Plaza, Boston Common (near the intersection of Tremont and Temple Street/across the street from 138 Tremont Street)

Suspended until further notice

Take A Walking Tour Of Boston's Historic Black Churches

By Rev. Emmett G. Price III, Rev. Irene Monroe, and Ellen London

This month, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. takes viewers on a journey through the rich and complex evolution of The Black Church to reveal how it has influenced nearly every chapter of the African American story and continues to animate Black identity today. We spoke with Reverend Irene Monroe and Reverend Emmett G. Price III, hosts of the All Rev’d Up podcast, which explores where faith intersects politics and culture, to learn more about the history of the Black church in the Boston area and explore the legacy of the city’s historic sites.

Rev. Emmett G. Price III: Boston is a very old city with a long legacy, especially as we look at the tremendous contributions of both enslaved and free Blacks. The sites that are mentioned here are a sample of a large number of other historical spaces, all worthy of mention.

Rev. Irene Monroe: The Black Church and the story of Black life is an American story. We have been contributors to this nation and its spiritual and cultural legacy.

Price: Irene is correct! What people who engage and endeavor to experience these sacred spaces will find is a vibrant life force that goes back generations. So many generations of people, on whose shoulders we stand who looked to God for justice, equity and inclusion — in many ways, the same justice, equity and inclusion we continue to seek today.

Monroe: The Black Church is the oldest and only institution created and led by Black people. It is the one institution in this nation that has not been permeated and plagued by supremacist and racist ideologies.

Listen to a special episode of All Rev’d Up , “The Black Church: Reimagining Our Story and Our Song,” launching on Wednesday, February 24, in which the Revs discuss how we might reimagine the future of the Black church post-COVID. They will share their dreams, visions and hope as well as their fears, concerns and the challenges. Brought to you with support from The Corporation For Public Broadcasting.

Want to visit these landmarks in person? Grab your mask and your mittens for a safe and self-guided walking tour.

Black Heritage Trail

14 Beacon St, Boston, MA 02108

The Black Heritage Trail takes visitors on a 1.6-mile walk through the heart of Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood, showcasing private residences and community buildings associated with the Black community that lived on or near the north slope of Beacon Hill before, during, and after the Civil War. Throughout that time, this community struggled and organized for equal rights and access to equal education, championing the movement to abolish slavery and even housing freedom seekers on their journey along the Underground Railroad.

Most sites along the Black Heritage Trail remain private residences. However, the final stops — the Abiel Smith School and the African Meeting House — are part of the Museum of African American History , which is open to the public and now offering timed tickets for patrons to visit while maintaining social distance.

African Meeting House

8 Smith Ct, Boston, MA 02114

Located just steps away from the Massachusetts State House in what was the heart of Boston’s African American neighborhood throughout the 1800s, the African Meeting House was built in 1806 and is now the oldest Black church edifice still standing in the United States. Known throughout its long history variously as the First African Baptist Church, First Independent Baptist Church, and the Belknap Street Church, the African American Meeting House served as a church, a school, and a vital community meeting place. It has since been restored to its 1855 appearance, and present-day visitors can take a tour via timed tickets for entry available here .

People’s Baptist Church

830 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02118

The People’s Baptist Church in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood was originally the first African Baptist Church in the city — and now its oldest continuous congregation — having served the Black community since its organization on Beacon Hill in August 1805. According to the church’s website , its worship “is in the Black religious tradition, designed to be spiritually uplifting, intellectually challenging, and socially relevant.”

Twelfth Baptist Church

160 Warren St, Roxbury, MA 02119

The Twelfth Baptist Church , in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, was established in 1840 and is the oldest direct descendant of the African Baptist Church (now the People’s Baptist Church, above) in Beacon Hill. Throughout its long history, the church has served as a forum for champions of human rights and dignity such as William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglas, Rev. Leonard A. Grimes, Rev. George Washington Williams, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others. From the anti-slavery movement of the 1800s through the civil rights movement and into present day, Twelfth Baptist Church has “fostered a commitment to spiritual guidance and social action to the Greater Boston community.”

Myrtle Baptist Church

21 Curve Street, West Newton, MA 02465

Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, just west of the city of Boston, was established in 1874 to serve the population of the town’s 130 Black residents, who sought a church within which to worship in their own tradition — and to sit wherever they chose, not just in the church’s rear as when attending predominantly white congregations. The church’s first pastor was Rev. Edmund Kelley, a former slave who was licensed to preach in Columbia, Tennessee in 1842 while still enslaved. After gaining his freedom, he traveled extensively, preaching and organizing churches in several states before arriving in Boston and founding Myrtle Baptist Church. After leaving Myrtle, he went on to be an important figure on the national stage, becoming one of the organizers of the American Baptist Missionary Convention in New York and also one of the Black pastors who met with both Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson.

On October 22, 1897, a fire destroyed the original Myrtle Baptist Church. Within a year, the church was rebuilt upon the same site as the original building.

Union Baptist Church

874 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02139

Just across the Charles River in Cambridge, Union Baptist Church had its early beginnings in prayer meetings held in the basement of Mr. and Mrs. Clayborne Underwood Miller, who lived on Hastings Street, in October 1878. Samuel O. Weems, a Cambridge historian of the early 20th century, gathered an oral history from a daughter, Mrs. Alice V. Jones, who recalled of the church’s early days: “I was a little girl when I saw a group of people meeting in our kitchen and my mother told me they were getting ready to build a Baptist church in Cambridge for the colored people.” Those kitchen prayer meetings quickly outgrew their space, moving to the cellar of Mr. James Thornton as a meeting place until the number of members swelled to more than 70. Many of the new members were of Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury (above) and relieved to have a local place of worship, instead of having to walk or travel via horse-drawn carriage across the river to Roxbury. The group secured a charter from the American Baptist Association in April 1879, and immediately named their church “Union,” believing that in union there is strength. In just three years, the church’s membership grew to approximately 300 and sufficient money was raised to build the church on its current site.

St. Paul A.M.E.

37 Bishop Allen Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139

The oldest Black church in Cambridge, St. Paul A.M.E. traces its roots back to 1870 when a small band of worshippers gathered in the living room of Bro. Buckner, affiliating shortly thereafter in 1873 with the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. As the church’s membership rapidly increased, its members purchased land at the corner of Hastings and Portland Streets where construction soon began on the church’s original site. Following a population boom in the area around World War I, the building could no longer accommodate the congregation. The church was sold and the present location — formerly the Wood Memorial Church — was purchased, with parishioners marching from the original location to the new site in triumph.

St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church

1073 Tremont St, Roxbury, MA 02120

A large influx of people from the former British West Indian Islands, as well as African Americans from the southern states, to Boston and Cambridge at the turn of the twentieth century led to increased demand for membership in the area’s Episcopalian churches. However, worshippers found not only a cold reception from the predominantly white congregations, but also in many cases outright disdain. So, these Black Episcopalians decided to ban together, first meeting for worship in a private home at 218 Northampton Street in May 1910. The rapid increase in membership forced them to move to Franklin Union on Berkley Street, where services were conducted by a layreader who was a medical student studying in Boston. Following several additional relocations, many of them marred by blatant racism and cruelty toward the congregation — one church where the group was allowed to worship on Sunday evenings was discovered to have been fumigating the building after the Black parishioners left — the congregation persisted and, in July 1921, purchased a lot on Tremont Street. St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church — named after Cyprian, an outstanding theologian and Bishop of Carthage in North Africa — was officially opened for worship on February 10, 1924.

For more information and history about Black churches and historical sites throughout the Boston area, explore the African American Trail Project from Tufts University .

For more information about churches throughout the state, visit the Massachusetts Council of Churches .

Watch The Black Church here .

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• Boston Black Tour Guides
• Request a bus quote for your group
• Boston Black Heritage Tour: ” From Protest to Freedom” is a Walking or RidingTour
• Walking Tour: From Back Bay to the Heart of Black Boston
• The Royall House Slave Quarters Tour
• Roxbury on Video.

Boston Black Heritage Tour Sightseeing News

African studies professors, the city of boston, allies of the first church of roxbury in elliot square and the historic boston non-profit organization, have brought new material to light about the history of black people in boston..

Boston’s oldest African-American owned newspaper has published some articles that will impress every history teacher of K-12 Grades, because there’s is a lot of Black history that never made it into the text books the Boston Public Schools buy for the kids.

Our Protest to Freedom Black Heritage Tour can take you into Jamaica Plain (JP) if you want to check it out, Jamaica Plain is a favorite part of Boston. It conains a long stretch of the Emerald Necklace and holds Jamaica Pond and parts of Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum. Long ago slaves lived in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood. JP used to be half Hispanic and the other half Black and White, before gentrification set in and prices for apartment rents and house went through the roof.

The recently published Boston Banner article titled “ Research Identifies more than two dozen Enslaved during the 1700s in Jamaica Plain , mentions how volunteer researchers found 27 people were enslaved as farmers or domestics. They found out about them by looking at probate and marriage records, old newspapers containing runaway slave ads and other documents,. The First Baptist Church of Jamaica Plain on Centre Street. Boston’s John Hancock owned slaves. He also signed the Declaration of Independence and was the first governor of colonial Massachusetts, according to the article.

There are a lot of different Boston tours because are a lot of people coming into the city between March and September. MOTT, the agency responsible for tourism reports there were 26.2 million visitors in fiscal year 2020.

Because of its sizable destination economy, super-rich private equity firms have put up millions to buy double-decker tour buses that do not venture into Black Boston communities. None of White-owne2d tour companies cross Huntington Avenue, where Lower Roxbury begins and the Black Community goes out from there miles and miles until Mattapan and the Milton border. The first Black governor of Massachusetts, the honorable Deval Patrick, had a residence in the Town of Milton.

Good thing Black-owned Boston tour companies are expanding. To date, we know of several Black-History tour operators in Boston. There are many more African Studies professors in colleges and universities who train, educate and advance the work. Check out the woman behind Black Gems Unearthed and you’ll see what I mean.

Considering the significant amount of attention paid to the 0 town’s illustrated 1776 colonial history where the points are interests include museums, churches, gravesites, buildings, monuments, ships, attractions, enactments, artistic performances and more, for so long, the story about Black people’s Boston was left out of the Colonial history brochures — but things are changing.

Cosider doing a BLACK HERITAGE TOUR activity when relatives come to visit you. You won’t know what you are missing until you go out on a Black tour of Boston.

In 2021, AboutBlackBoston.org Getaways is elevating Boston Black Heritage. The tours provoke the stories and interrogate the physical material left behind by the Early Africans for all to see. Covering the 17th Century thru the 21st Century, this multi-site work is ambitious.

Our first tour program release is designed to attract the well-heeled Back Bay hotel guest and resident from Boylston Street area of the Back Bay into the heart of Black Boston. The tour is named the “Back Bay to Black Boston Sprinter Tour,” a mixed walking and riding experience that originates where the A. Phillip Randolph monument is in Back Back Station and ends in Roxbury’s Nubian Square.

With the addition of the new series of BLACK TOURS we are bringing to market, Boston can proudly boasts of having the largest variety of American heritage stories to offer tourists, cultural lovers and families. We are adding a lot of new Black tours that have never been run before. This tour program development work is underway.

Some destinations are: the MLK sites, Malcolm X childhood home, Dorcas de Blackamore homestead ( she was with the first documented Africans to arrive in Boston in 1638), Dorchester North Burying Ground, Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, Old Indian Meeting House, Zipporah Potter Atkins Site, George Middleton / Louis Glapion House, BlockPomp’s Wall / Brooks Estate, Royall House and Slave Quarters, the African Orthodox Church, and others.

FULLY VACCINATED TRAVELERS TO MASSACHUSETTS DO NOT HAVE TO QUARANTINE

Martha’s Vineyard Black Weekend carries the pulse of the Black elites who descend on the island when its hot outside to celebrate and support causes with Black college roommates, casual and corporate friends, relatives, and the family. Black people have lived on Martha’s Vineyard for hundreds of years. The island has long been considered the resort of the Black rich. Blacks have become native Islanders over the years.

Transportation from Boston

Request a quote to travel to Martha’s Vineyard from Boston to the Wood’s Hole or Falmouth ferry boat terminal for your group. Now booking Martha’s Vineyard trips and activities such as whole island tours, and more.

Type of vehicle: We use the passenger car for up to 3 persons, SUV, and 14 – 55 PAX motor coach buses. Prices are negotiable Airport pickups are available.

Request a Quote

There is a Black Heritage Trail on Martha’s Vineyard. The island is host to the infamous Run and Shoot African American film Festival which runs a week, when the Black comedy show series on stages in town. And African American owned art gallery is a must stop in Oak Bluff where it is one of many galleries and hangouts for artist and creatives. Glance at the Martha’s Vineyard Gazette newspaper for event listings and visit the Black Culture Guide to the Best of Martha’s Vineyard website for things to do, places to go and read Blog posts about what people are saying.

The Cousins African American art gallery is smack dab in the middle of Oak Bluff downtown where it gets busy next to the beach. Further into the country the public library has a good selection of African American culture books. The African American culture festival comes once a year. There’s a Black beach to do – its called Inkwell beach next to the Vineyard Haven ferry terminal at Oak Bluff. Blacks have a lot going on on the Vineyard in the summertime. From Boston. you can take a motor coach bus or drive to one of two departures: Woods Hole or Falmouth, then catch a ferry boat to Martha’s Vineyard. Or you can fly into the airport.

AboutBlackBoston.org Getaway tours and material connects you to what has been passed on from generation to generation by the first Africans in Boston, to the population at-large and to the African American community living here today. Monuments, places, the customs, objects, artistic expressions and more are featured in a variety of tours. You will learn stories left out of school text books. You can go on tours to sites left by Early Africans of the 17th century who co-built Boston into an ancient, economic power that made White men the richest persons in America. You can see and learn from 17th, 18th, and 19th century sites. As Twentieth century Boston grew up, Blacks and their heritage influenced the city’s politics, industries, science, the arts, sports, and more. Twentieth Century African Americans era are following the Early Africans while cutting paths of their own. Our tours, books, souvenirs and online content tells stories of the old, the new and what will be our inevitable futures.

Blog Posts articles on this site

• Major Exhibition about the Harlem Renaissance fills the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan
• Boston’s Reparations for Slavery Status and Update
• The exact spot where America was born is here.
• The antiracist institute at Boston University passes audit with flying colors.
• Talking about Black-owned hotels in Boston MA.
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Boston Location

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When you arrive at our Boston Location, the Abiel Smith School is your first stop. Here you can purchase tickets at the front desk, visit exhibitions, and shop at the museum store.

The Abiel Smith School (1835) is the oldest public school in the United States that was built for the sole purpose of educating African American children. Its walls tell the story of abolition and equal education. Located steps away from the Massachusetts State House, the Abiel Smith School currently houses first-class exhibit galleries, education programs, and a museum store filled with books and inspired gifts.

Reserve your ticket now for entrance at 10am, 12pm, or 2pm Tuesday through Sunday.

African Meeting House

The African Meeting House (1806) is the oldest extant black church building in the nation. Built by free African American artisans, the Meeting House is the last stop on the Black Heritage Trail®. Once a church, a school, and vital community meeting place, the African Meeting House has been returned to its 1855 appearance through historic restoration and is open to the public for talks and tours, our events and yours.

Winner of NTHP award

Black Heritage Trail®

Take a walking tour of the largest collection of historic sites in the country relating to the life of a free African American community prior to the Civil War. Discover this important history as you stroll through the north slope of Beacon Hill. Come into the Museum, the last stop on the Trail , and discover the missing pages of America's history.

The Black Heritage Trail® consists of 14 sites and begins at the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial on Beacon Street. Self-guided tours can be conducted at any time, Monday through Sunday. Maps and site brochures can be obtained at the Abiel Smith School.

Historically rich tours are led by our partners, interpretive National Park Service Rangers, Boston African American National Historic Site (BOAF). Ranger-guided tour schedules are subject to change.

Hours, Directions, & Tickets

Boston Museum Hours 10:00AM - 4:00PM | Tues. - Sun.

Holiday Hours

The Boston location is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day. The Milk Street Administrative Offices are closed on all Federal holidays, as well as on New Years Eve.

Directions to the Museum of African American History

From the South:

Take I-93 North, take exit 23 (old exit 25) toward Government Center. Stay in the left lane. Keep left at the fork and toward Financial District/Government Center. Merge onto North St. Turn right onto Congress St. Turn slight left onto New Chardon St. New Chardon St becomes Bowdoin St. Turn slightly right onto Derne St. Turn left onto Hancock St. Turn right onto Mount Vernon St. Take the 1st right onto Joy St. The Museum of African American History is on the left.

From the North:

Take I-93 South, take exit 18 to MA 3N towards Government Center/Central Square. Use the left two lanes to continue on to Cambridge Street. Turn right onto S. Russell Street. Turn left onto Myrtle Street. Turn left onto Joy Street. The Museum is on the left.

From the East

Take 1A South, towards I-93N towards Sumner Tunnel/Government Center. Use the left lane towards Government Center. Keep left follow sign for Government Center. Keep left onto New Chardon Street. New Chardon St becomes Bowdoin St. Turn slightly right onto Derne St. Turn left onto Hancock St. Turn right onto Mount Vernon St. Take the 1st right onto Joy St. The Museum of African American History is on the left.

From the West

Take I-90 East towards Logan Airport. Take exit 131 on the left towards Cambridge. Merge onto Cambridge Street. Turn right on the ramp to Downtown Boston/Storrow Drive. Keep left and merge onto Soldiers Field Road. Continue onto M-28 N/Storrow Drive. Take exit to the right towards Government Center/Mass General. Continue onto Cambridge Street. Turn right onto S. Russell Street. Turn left onto Myrtle Street. Turn left onto Joy Street. The Museum is on the left.

Public Transit & Driving Directions

Public Transit 

Checkout MBTA Trip Planner or train and bus schedules, and other transportation options.

Driving From Storrow Drive

Take Government Center exit to Cambridge Street; pass Massachusetts General Hospital [on left]. Go approx. 1/2 mile to Joy Street [on right]. Park and walk up Joy Street to Boston campus.

There are several parking garages in the vicinity of the Museum of African American History. A few recommendations:

Charles River Plaza 209 Cambridge Street Boston, MA 02114 617-227-3517 *Metered parking is also available on Cambridge Street

Boston Common Garage 0 Charles Street Boston, MA 02116 617-954-2098 bostoncommongarage.com

Celebrate your next event at the Museum

The Museum’s historic African Meeting House in Boston is ideal for those planning a wedding, lecture, concert, film screening, or other special event. This pristinely restored building accommodates 180 in comfortable pew seating and is surrounded by courtyards, perfectly suited for outdoor receptions and gatherings.

Good Housekeeping

The 10 Best Cities For Walking

Posted: March 30, 2024 | Last updated: March 30, 2024

Even though putting one foot in front of the other is the easiest form of exercise there is, it's still hard to find the motivation to bypass the car and head out on foot in your everyday life. But with a couple of tools—including a visit to Walkscore.com which grades cities and neighborhoods on the ease of finding entertainment or provisions on foot, and Prevention.com's at-a-glance guide to the attractions that you'd never notice on a drive—you can get (ahem) one step closer to a more exciting pedestrian lifestyle. The closer a city on this list scores to 100, the better the walkability.

Whether you're in the market for a new 'hood or planning a trip, you can take advantage of these 10 cities where pedestrians give wheels a run for their money. Read on to learn what makes these metro areas walker-friendly.

MORE: 7 Incredible Results You'll Get From Walking 30 Minutes A Day

10. Long Beach, CA

Walk score: 69.9

Long Beach has numerous business and shopping districts, as well as parks and waterfront areas that are pedestrian-friendly. Take Shoreline Pedestrian Bikepath, for example, the 4-mile trail has gorgeous views of the water and is perfect for trying any of these

9. Oakland, CA

Walk score: 72.0

8. Seattle, WA

Walk score: 73.1

You know you're in a pedi-friendly city when the municipal government publishes a Seattle Walking Map , making it clear that creating a greener environment and a healthier population is a top priority. From the historic district surrounding Pike Place Market to the shops and eateries in Fremont, there are loads of places to explore on foot in picturesque Seattle. Other attractions include the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park, the Myrtle Edwards Park, Elliott Bay Park, and the Graham Arboretum.

7. Washington, D.C.

Walk score: 77.3

Between D.C.’s National Mall, the Smithsonian, and the blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue, there are countless places to sneak in some steps in our nation’s capital.

6. Chicago, IL

Walk score: 77.8

From The Magnificent Mile to Millennium Park, anyone who's lived in the Windy City knows it's a walker's dream. First-time visitor? Check out the Chicago Greeter program for a free guided walking tour. You'll meet a Chamber of Commerce sponsored local for a free guided tour of a neighborhood.

5. Philadelphia, PA

Walk score: 79.2

Philly is so committed to keeping pedestrians safe that its Center City district boasts the largest comprehensive pedestrian sign system in North America. The city also has more than 10,000 acres of pedestrian-friendly parks.

4. Miami, FL

This oceanfront city is a flat belly factory—whether you choose to walk on the beach, or burn off the yummy lunch you enjoyed on pedestrian-friendly Lincoln Road.

3. Boston, MA

Walk Score: 80.9

While the Freedom Trail has long been a way to stay fit while learning about the birth of our nation, Boston has seriously stepped up its efforts to create a citywide walker's paradise. To wit, WalkBoston —an initiative to make the city safer, easier to navigate on foot, greener, and more community-based, which they do by encouraging businesses and individuals to create a pro-walking atmosphere. They also offer awards to businesses that create inviting parks and seating areas, or individuals who advocate for increased pedestrian safety measures. WalkBoston's initiatives create a sort of universal access—with more than just a nod to citywide mobility for individuals of all incomes and abilities.

2. San Francisco, CA

Walk Score: 86.0

Hilly reputation notwithstanding, the city has serious walking cred in neighborhoods like Chinatown and the Financial District. San Francisco has also just launched a city-sponsored program called WalkFirst , which works to improve pedestrian safety and walking conditions with sidewalk buffers, revamped intersections, and better lighting in key pedestrian areas citywide. Walk San Francisco , an advocacy group that promotes pedestrian activity and safety, offers group walks as well.

New York, NY

Walk Score: 89.2

New Yorkers have long used their own two feet to book it around town. But recent pedestrian-friendly enhancements all over the city have considerably upped how pleasant that experience can be. Two favorites: The High Line—which transformed 1.45 miles of long-neglected elevated freight train tracks into a birds-eye-view promenade above the shore of the Hudson River—and a more walkable Times Square.

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