Kevin C. Peterson, founder of Boston-based New Democracy Coalition and the Newly Formed Faneuil Hall Race + Reconciliation Project Reads An Open Letter To Mayor Martin J. Walsh on the City’s Racism. He is Pictured With Supporters Pushing City Leaders For A Public Hearing (Photo Credit: Ken Rivard)

AN OPEN LETTER TO MAYOR MARTIN J. WALSH ON THE PERSISTENCE OF BOSTON RACISM

30 September 2019

Dear Boston Mayor Martin Walsh,

The power, potential and possibilities for the black and the poor — for the rejected and the vulnerable in Boston — are centered uniquely in our collected efforts at ensuring equity and human flourishing.

At the core of our city’s social crisis is our stance against racism and the varied and overt forms of white supremacy that have long paralyzed our body politic and that have condemned us, even the best among us, to retreat into the shameful and reclusive precincts of ethnic guilt and social denial.

We seek to change the name of Faneuil Hall as an effort of addressing a crisis — as an effort to confront the demons — or as the Apostle Paul would say, the “powers and principalities” that haunt, harangue and hold sway over our desire to be a better city, to be better neighbors. Again, Mr. Mayor, we ask your help in scheduling a hearing in city council to consider changing the name of Faneuil Hall, a place named after a slave holder, a place which is, for many, a house of horror.

Mr. Mayor, it is abundantly clear that racism permeates every aspect of the city and impacts how it operates. The practice of racism in Boston overtly protects the privileged while reducing…