City of Boston Ignores Pleas of Black Activists at Downtown Tourist Icon
The city of Boston was recently confronted with an opportunity to clear the racially toxic air that hovers over Faneuil Hall and its adjacent Market Place in Boston. What did the city do? It punted.
Earlier this month, the city cashed a 2.1 million check from the New York-based Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation. The corporation was two years late on its annual payment in-lieu-of-taxes agreement. The city had threatened to break the lease. Instead, they pressured the company and took the money.
Given the symbolic shame that Faneuil Hall brings to the city, there certainly was an opportunity to do more. Faneuil Hall is notorious for its lack of black-owned businesses. Boston Mayor Walsh’s administration should have renegotiated with the New York leasing group in the interest of following a multi-racial group of organizers who are pressing for re-memorializing the publicly owned space.
For years local activists have been urging Mayor Walsh to consider renaming Faneuil Hall because of its odious connection to the African slave trade. Peter Faneuil, for whom the iconic downtown site is named, owned human chattel and amassed much of his great wealth through the trans-Atlantic slave trade and related industries. Walsh has adamantly rejected the idea of a name change, despite…
