Creating a More Inclusive Boston Freedom Trail and Black Heritage Trail: An Intersectional Approach to Empowering Social Justice And Equality

This article is a form of activist archaeology in taking a feminist intersectional approach to suggest additional information and sites to increase the inclusiveness of Boston’s Freedom Trail and Black Heritage Trail. First a critical feminist approach is taken to analyze the biases of these trails. Critique of the dominance of elite white heterosexual men in Freedom Trail sites is needed to open the space for more inclusive intersectional information. The inclusion of more information about Native American men and women is suggested for existing sites on the Freedom Trail, and a statue commemorating their settlements in the area. Inclusion of more information about women of various intersectionalities is suggested for existing sites on the Freedom Trail and the Black Heritage Trail, as well as some additional women’s sites from the Boston Women’s Heritage Trails and survey of over 120 women’s public institutions in Boston. Inclusion of greater ethnic diversity is suggested with the addition of information from the Irish Heritage Trail and the addition of sites from Jewish heritage trails. Inclusion at existing Freedom Trail sites of information about non-heterosexuals is suggested from Boston’s Equality Trail.