Trump Cuts Funds for Boston's Museum of African American History

(Source: National Trust for Historic Preservation)

When people ask me to take them to the most important historic site in Boston, I take them to the Museum of African American History (MAAH) on Beacon Hill. The museum, located in Smith Court along Joy Street, on the north slope of Beacon Hill, comprises the Abiel Smith School, constructed in 1835—the first public school in the country for African American children—and the African Meeting House, which was built in 1806.

Before the Civil War, they anchored one of the most vibrant Black neighborhoods in the nation and included some of the most vocal abolitionists and civil rights advocates. They campaigned for desegregated schools and street cars, the right to vote, as well as the end of slavery.

Black and white leaders, including Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips, William Cooper Nell, Lewis Hayden, William Lloyd Garrison, Maria Stewart, and William Wells Brown took to the podium to speak out against injustice.

The neighborhood harbored hundreds of fugitive slaves and witnessed some of the most violent incidents following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. The African Meeting House served as one of many safe houses throughout the neighborhood for freedom seekers.

The African Meeting House and Abiel Smith School in Smith Court (Source: NPS)

This week, museum officials learned that a three-year federal grant, secured through the Institute of Museum and Library Services, has been terminated. The notification letter that the museum received included the following: “[U]pon further review, your ILMS grant is no longer consistent with the agency’s priorities and no longer serves in the interest of the United States and the furtherance of the President’s policies.”

What is it exactly about this museum that “no longer serves in the interest of the United States.” The story that this museum interprets is the story of American freedom. What could be more American or patriotic about Black and white Americans finding common ground in a shared fight for freedom?

During the Civil War, the African Meeting House was used as a recruiting center for the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Regiments. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw took to the podium at least once to encourage the city’s Black men to volunteer.

(Source: National Park Service)

After the war, African American leaders continued to push for voting rights and the right to run for public office in Boston and throughout the nation as well as a host of other issues. The building eventually fell into disrepair, but a recent renovation has beautifully restored the building to what it would have looked like on the eve of the Civil War.

So many local museums, that already operate on a limited budget, have met the same fate and with no warning. Difficult choices will now have to be made about the scale of future operations.

As a resident of the city of Boston, this one literally hits too close to home. I’ve led numerous student, teacher, and adult groups through the African Meeting House and the surrounding neighborhood. Visitors are drawn to the podium, where they can see what Douglass and Garrison saw as they spoke to packed crowds about one of the many pressing issues that animated Bostonians during the antebellum period and the Civil War.

We walk the adjacent alleyways as I share stories of freedom seekers like George Latimer, Ellen and William Craft, Shadrach Minkins, Thomas Sims, and Anthony Burns, who sought safety from slave catchers and a chance to live in freedom.

There is something truly magical about this site.

It infuriates me to no end that some of the funds earmarked to museums like MAAH will be redirected to construct President Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes.

How is a garden of lifeless statues, interpreted to do little more than reinforce Trump’s political agenda, a suitable use of taxpayer dollars, but a museum dedicated to telling one of the most important stories of American freedom is not?

I am tired of having to continue to bring you these stories. They are incredibly painful, especially when you have seen the hard work that goes into maintaining a museum and historic site and when you see the joy expressed by a visitor, who has just made a meaningful connection with the past.

I know that the staff at MAAH will find a way forward, but they, along with museums in your neighborhoods will need your help and support. Please do what you can. Take the time to visit and make sure to express how much you appreciate the important work that they do for the community.