Black Heritage Trail an opportunity to address gaps in town’s history

I am writing to express unequivocal support for the creation of the Black Heritage Trail in town. The goals of the project feel like a no-brainer: to make visible the stories that are not currently reflected in town, to build awareness of narratives related to our town’s Black heritage, and to support the goal of “building a more welcoming community.”

More importantly, the trail represents a chance to undo the literal whitewashing of Acton’s history. Having grown up in Acton — weaned on the tales of Alcott, Thoreau, and Emerson — one of the very first “new” things I noticed when I moved back in 2019 to raise my own children here was The Robbins House in its Monument Street location. I immediately became aware of the gaps in the stories and myths I’d been told about our local history.

Now, we have the chance to redress that wrong. I have a vision that someday when folks talk about Acton, The Robbins House is as natural a part of our discourse as the Revolution and the Transcendentalists. That when people think of Acton, they will think of our Black Heritage Trail as naturally as they think of the North Bridge and Walden Pond. That Ellen Garrison and Caesar Robbins will be names as well-known as Louisa May and Henry David and Ralph Waldo.

Here is our chance for this generation — and those that follow — to grow up knowing and telling these important stories of Acton’s Black history, and our chance as a town to weave this important thread of our past back into the narrative.

Rebecca Lemaitre

Nathan Pratt Drive