2025 FALL TRAVEL & TOURING SERIES

 

~ MORE PUBLIC DATES COMING SOON ~

Hidden History of Black BOSTON - WALKING TOUR

The North End walking tour (2hrs) connects current/evolving Boston and colonial Boston at America’s ‘birth’.  We start out at  Haymarket/Faneuil hall and discuss three African women in the 1600s who lived there. Then we walk to Long Wharf (Boston's connection to the birth of the Atlantic world), then to the Revere House/Revere Mall to discuss architecture, newspaper/media, and accounts of African life in Africa and in urban sidelighted with southern, island and global enslavement survivals, then we loop to Copps hill cemetery (1st black community site in Boston, at least 1,000 Black folks interred there) and lift up the beginning of incredible activism and involvement in the American revolution-the birth of the Commonwealth).  And we walk back to Haymarket (minimal hill incline/decline in the last 20 minutes).  This is our general tour; it sets the stage for a clear understanding of the Black community’s original formation in the North End leading into the West End, the civil war and the 'Great Migration' building David Walker City.  (recommended).

Hidden History of Black CAMBRIDGE - VAN TOUR

The story of Cambridge Mass “University City” is incomplete without Afro-Cantibridgians. Africans led important lives & accomplishments from colonial times, through the abolitionist movement to civil rights and black lives matters. Come learn more as Cambridge took its being these last four centuries (including Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Brattle Street, Harvard Square, Mid-Cambridge, and the Port). Depart: Central Square (2hr +)






Beyond Those Battlefields: The Hidden History of Black CONCORD - VAN TOUR

Ceasar, Susan, Ellen, John-Jack, Cuff, Chloris, & Jack are historical metro-west Black folk we need to know about. How did they show and live Black agency, Black freedom minded-ness and Black humanity-tracking. Through historical war~battle and personally waged fronts, learn about African America in Concord & Massachusetts from the 1600s to today. Depart: Main St. at Concord Academy (2hrs +)





A LOVE Supreme: Boston’s Iconic Black Couples in History & Their Works - VAN TOUR

What did the Latimers, the Trotters, Ned & Dinah, Mark and ‘Wife’, and the Kings DO? Come learn more about Black Love in action in Boston. (2hrs +) Depart: Roxbury Branch Library, Nubian Square





Black Ankoben (WARrior): Sites of Black Resistance & Organization - VAN TOUR

From (ki)Kongo to Wolof homelands, to slaver ‘cut off’ rebellions, to day-to-day rebell, to American Counter-Revolutions, to Double V and other Black ‘Readinesses’. Join Us.



Hidden History of The Black North Shore - VAN TOUR

Did you know that printer Benjamin Roberts (Grandfather of Sarah Roberts in Roberts v. City of Boston) was born in Salem MA? He was the printer of the famous abolitionist broadside “Caution Colored People.” What connects incredible stories across Salem, Beverly, Marblehead, Lynn and Middleton? Black livity. ..from Phillis and John, to Joseph and Mary, Juno and Mingo, and Beloved Frederick, Come Join us. Lift up North Shore educational vibes. (Departing from Salem Armory Visitor Center, 2 New Liberty St, Salem, MA)

Times and Dates to be announced soon…

 
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Each fully narrated tour includes topics such as Black resistance & the seaport colony, the 'Commonwealth' & the 'Union', the Souls & Migrations of Black Folks, Civil Rights to Nubian Square and much much more (smile). Traditional tours limit knowledge, even MIS-educate, but your learning/touring experience with RE-IDREN supports self-knowledge, personalizes Ourstory and lifts community.

    Bro. Joel Mackall is an award winning Educator & Project Developer with the ReIdren Business Group based in Roxbury MA.  He is the co-founder of the S.O.S. Living Museum, the Hidden History of Black Boston Tours, the Nubian Writer's Group and is a self-published author.  He has also served as secretary of the Cameroonians of Lowell Association, as an officer on the Warren Gardens Housing Cooperative board, on the advisory council of the Network of Immigrant and African American Solidarity and as a technology chairperson with the Black Community Information Center. 

    Bro. Joel presented "Excellence AND Culture: Operating Your Cooperative Better, Simpler and Truer" at the National Association of Housing Cooperatives Annual Conference in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands and "Why Do We Black Folks Hate On Each Other?" at the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations' Ancient Egyptian Studies Conference in Newark, NJ. 

He has led/facilitated numerous professional workshops in Greater Boston on topics including genealogy, African & world history , business design and technology at the Freedom House, Mother Caroline Academy, Warren Gardens, Roxbury Multi-Service Center, Roxbury Community College, Emerson College, Lesley College, South Bay House of Correction, almost all of the BPL neighborhood branches and Walden Square Technology Center (north Cambridge), in both English and Spanish.

To learn more/create a custom project, contact Joel by dropping a message in the form in the footer below (smile).

Downtown Walking Tours Arriving

Public Transportation: Haymarket MBTA station (Orange and Green Lines, MBTA bus routes).

Parking excellent saturday all day rate: www.spplus.com

Hidden history of BLack boston/new england Grapevine

Right Now Travel Group - Summer 2022

“I am a travel consultant based in Virginia. I decided to plan several African American Heritage group tours, and the first one was for New York, Martha's Vineyard, and Boston. Joel Mackall's Black Boston tour was beyond SUPERB!!!! My group was fascinated by the information Mr. Mackall provided. His knowledge, passion, and enthusiasm were evident throughout our tour. After receiving rave tour reviews from my group, I contacted Mr. Mackall to let him know the value of his tour was much more than we paid. I HIGHLY recommend the Black Boston tour to anyone visiting the area. It is a must!!

~Hettie Holmes-Carter, Owner, Right Now Travel Consultants, LLC

"I highly recommend the Hidden History of Black Boston Tour.  It was enlightening.  To stand on sites in the local areas of Boston and vicinity that show how African American activists dedicated their lives to the cuase of freedom was inspiring. It elucidated the importance of fulfilling the mission of NIAAS. Joel is a dedicated tour leader. He is not only well informed but his historical research is ongoing. Additional information will be provided on future tours.  We live in the North. You will learn about Phillis Wheatley, a slave in Boston in the 1700s who not only became literate but was the first Black person and the third woman in the United States to publish a book of poems.  It is chilling to be just outside of Boston in Medford, Massachusetts on property, now a museum, where one of the buildings was slave quarters and the other the master's house. But there it is, in your face. Burial grounds are often visible to us in Massachusetts, as we drive by them.  Joel takes you into the cemetery where you can see, touch and ponder the burial place of Prince Hall who is recognized as the father of Black Masonry in the United States. He established his African Fraternal Lodge of Masons as far back as 1784. Because of Prince Hall's efforts, the world-wide lodge numbers in present day have increased to well over 4,500. I was moved by this historical information being part of Joel's tour because my late father was a Prince Hall mason.  We totaled eight people, comfortable on this van tour. I knew that I was in good company. Look for the next opportunity to go on this tour. Joel, the great tour guide, will not disappoint!   Sincerely, Dolores"

~Dolores Alleyne Goode, Ph.D.

"HHBNE gave me gold and diamonds from this tour because of the knowledge I gained; such remarkable history was revealed. I have lived in the Boston area for over ten years and have never been anywhere as important and educative like the places we visited on this tour. I was so moved to see the house that Malcolm X lived in and so proud knowing that one of my contry women, a slave in Boston in the 1700s, was literate, a writer and was the first black person and the third woman in the United States to publish a book of poems.

Thank you Joel & Kotey you are the best."

~Fatou D. Fatty

Visitor Resources

Blackstonian (Black Boston 411 24/7): https://blackstonian.org/

The Museum of the National Center of Afro American Artists (NCAAA): http://ncaaa.org/

Museum of African American History: https://www.maah.org/

Black Community Information Center: http://blackinfonow.org/

MeetBoston Links: https://www.meetboston.com/things-to-do/cross-cultural-boston/blackboston/

City of Boston Links: https://www.boston.gov/visiting-boston#resources

Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau: https://www.bostonusa.com/

Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism: https://www.massvacation.com/