Mere name change can’t erase stains of history
Should we change the name of Faneuil Hall to Crispus Attucks Hall, as some activists have recently suggested?
Personally, I say no.
I do believe we should include Crispus Attucks in Faneuil Hall. Attucks is widely regarded as the first American, who also happened to be of African descent, to be killed at the start of the Revolutionary War. He is honored with a plaque on the ground at the site of the Boston Massacre. He definitely deserves more. I would like to think he is an indisputable hero to black and white Bostonians alike.
Peter Faneuil was involved in the slave trade, which is why activists want to change the name of this historic site. Most likely, some of the proceeds helped build Faneuil Hall. He probably also used slave labor. He wasn’t the only early American to benefit from their involvement in slavery. Many did, including Founding Fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Free slave labor helped build this nation, in cluding another iconic edifice, the White House.
Faneuil Hall was also one of only a very few places in this city, besides the venerable African Meeting House, where blacks, whites and women could congregate together freely to discuss and map out strategies to break the back of slavery. In some quarters the hall was rumored to be an important stop on the Underground Railroad that ran throughout New England. Today there seems to be a historical disconnect.
Most of the folks who visit don’t know anything about this important part of the hall’s history or anything about the African Meeting House. We need to reconnect those dots, to spotlight the fact that blacks and whites worked together to abolish slavery here in Massachusetts, among the first states in the union to do so.
That Faneuil Hall was a hot spot for the abolitionist movement doesn’t absolve the original sin of slavery. Nothing could ever do that. But I believe reparations are in order. Of course, there is not enough money in the world to repay African-Americans for the free labor or the many great contributions to America made while in bondage. But we can take it out in trade by actually solving the many issues that have become compounded for AfricanAmericans as a result and byproduct of slavery. Think of how liberating it would be to finally break the chains of poverty, mass incarceration, inadequate health care, schools that don’t work for our kids, chronic joblessness and systemic racism.
And what about the Slave Auction Block Memorial rumored to be planned for installation at Fanueil Hall? When I first heard about it, I was adamant: no way. To be honest, I’m still leaning that way. Most of my friends, black and white, whose opinions I trust, thought it was a joke. The most frequent responses: “bizarre” and “grotesque.” I have not yet seen the rendering by Massachusetts College of Art professor Steven Locke, but understand it to be abstract, symbolic and somewhat interpretive. I have great respect for the artist. But I can’t help feeling that, one, somehow it isn’t quite the right expression and, two, there needs to be much more than that to improve and update the historical culture of Faneuil Hall.
I believe the newly planned Martin Luther King/Coretta Scott King memorial project on Boston Common could prove instructive. First, the statue will be downtown, a location pretty much devoid of many statues representing people of color.
I commend MLK Boston, under the direction of Robin Powell Mandjes, with dynamic duo cochairs the Rev. Liz Walker and Paul English, and the city of Boston, for reaching out to communities across the city for opinions and input. As a result, there will be an interactive component as part of the monument that will teach current and future generations the value of service and standing up and speaking out against injustice and actually doing something about it. Most importantly, it will connect community to history to ideals that transcend race, The aim is to bring people together around something everyone can attain. We need more of that in Boston, especially now.
To my friends who say the overall problem is that we have not really confronted slavery, I must confess that being a few generations removed as a direct descendant of slaves, I am much more concerned and confronted with the many negative repercussions that slavery has wrought. The question for us all should be whether it is more productive to dwell on the past or learn from it to continue to work for a better and more inclusive society.