Inside the 219-year-old African Meeting House, where Frederick Douglass once thundered against slavery and Black families built their own schools as acts of defiance, community leaders gathered this week to warn against what they call an effort to erase America’s full history.

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., joined leaders of Boston’s Black institutions for a walking tour of historic sites and a press conference, citing federal threats to museums, national parks and archives that document African American history.

“We stand on the grounds of the Abiel Smith School, one of the city’s oldest schools for Black children, where education itself was once an act of defiance,” Markey said. “These are not footnotes in our history. They are the chapters of the story of the United States of America — and they cannot be erased.”

Black institutions take the lead

At the press event, community voices carried much of the message. Noelle Trent, president and CEO of the Museum of African American History, reminded the audience that the meeting house itself, built in 1806, was constructed by and for Boston’s Black community.

“Every person who enters into this building is literally walking in the footsteps of history,” Trent said. “Even efforts to remove the uncomfortable and complex part of our collective history are an erasure. This is not a rhetorical exercise. My colleagues and I deal with this threat every day.”

Trent said the museum remains committed to preserving the truth despite funding uncertainties. Earlier this year, the institution faced the potential termination of a significant federal grant, which was subsequently reinstated. She urged visitors to support museums like hers through memberships, admissions and donations.

“Our pledge is rooted in the spirit of resilience that occupied this space from the early 1800s through the Civil War,” Trent said. “We will not be erased.”

Monuments as memory

Dr. Imari Paris Jeffries, president and CEO of Embrace Boston, linked public space to democracy. He pointed to Boston’s Black Heritage Trail, where visitors can follow the footsteps of abolitionists, and to monuments such as the Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial and The Embrace sculpture on Boston Common.

“Monuments are a city’s vocabulary,” Jeffries said. “They either invite, or they exclude. They either teach the whole truth, or they rehearse a lie.”

He said parks and monuments are where history breathes, and where a community defines itself. Confederate statues, he argued, were not memorials to the dead but “signposts to the living” that told Black communities where not to stand or vote. By contrast, Boston’s memorials tell stories of courage, love, and democracy.

“Public space is not neutral,” Jeffries said. “Every ranger who opens a gate does the quiet work of democracy. Every inscription that names the enslaved, the soldiers, the organizers, the artists, lays another brick on the road from memory to justice.”

History under pressure

Rahsaan Hall, president and CEO of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, reminded the audience of the Memphis Massacre of 1866, when white mobs killed 46 Black residents following the Civil War. The violence spurred Congress to pass the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law.

“The way we know about that massacre is because there’s a marker,” Hall said. “Eliminating monuments and whitewashing history sustains the attack not just on Black America, but on all of America.”

Hall said today’s attempts to downplay or erase history echo the same struggles Black communities have faced for centuries. “Today, we demand that history not be erased. On today, we demand that the National Park Service continues to be funded and is not manipulated into a tool of oppression,” he said.

Markey’s pledge

Markey criticized the current administration for instructing the National Park Service to remove references to slavery, Harriet Tubman, and the Underground Railroad from websites, along with mentions of transgender people at the Stonewall National Monument. Some of the erased historical material was later restored after public outcry.

“President Trump and his minions are not just rewriting policy,” Markey said. “They are trying to rewrite the history of the United States of America.” He pledged to fight in the Senate for funding and transparency in the National Park Service and museums. He also cited his past work with Representative Seth Moulton to expand the boundaries of the Salem Maritime National Historic Site to tell a fuller story.

“History belongs to the people, not to presidents, not to political parties,” Markey said. “We must stand with museums and curators, teachers and historians, and refuse to be complicit in the lie.”

Call to action

Speakers urged attendees to act locally by visiting museums, supporting cultural institutions financially, and documenting monuments and markers as part of campaigns such as “Save Our Signs.” “We will not be erased,” Trent said again, echoing the words of Frederick Douglass: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.”