“I’m dead!” proclaimed the tour guide for the Freedom Trail’s African American Patriots tour as he stood atop a bench on Boston Common for laughing attendees. 

In white stockings and a blue colonial vest, tour guide Chris Joazard led participants through Boston Common, Beacon Hill, and Granary Burying Ground to highlight the roles African Americans played in the American Revolution and the abolitionist movement. He played Crispus Attucks, a Black African American who was killed in the Boston Massacre.

“All history tours are important because [when] people walk through a big city like Boston, I can’t tell you how many people don’t know [the history],” Joazard said. “There’s just so many more deep historical layers that we can talk about when we’re adding in the Black layer and Black people’s stories.”

But this year, Black History Month has garnered hostile attention from the federal administration.

For Black History Month, President Donald Trump’s proclamation stated “our strength is rooted not in our differences, but in our shared commitment to freedom,” emphasizing African American achievements as an aspect of American history rather than distinct. 

The proclamation aligned with Trump’s previous efforts to remove historical exhibits related to African American history around the country. Trump signed an executive order last year, dubbed “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The order criticized the Smithsonian Institution for depicting the country as “inherently harmful and oppressive” from its “divisive, race-centered ideology.” Other historical sites, including Independence National Historical Park, have been criticized in this executive order as well.

On Jan. 22, workers were sent to remove a slavery exhibit in Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park, resulting in backlash from citizens and a lawsuit from the city. 

Joazard said that it was important to highlight black history specifically as many people are uninformed. He described African American history as “part of that patchwork of history.”

“There are a lot of contradictions that people see and hear when they come on the tour,” he said. “It’s important that we don’t shy away from those contradictions and that we embrace them because that is part of our history.” 

Despite the Trump administration’s policies, Black history was in the spotlight in Boston. 

Mayor Michelle Wu kicked off Black History Month on Feb. 3 at Boston City Hall with the City of Boston Equity and Inclusion Cabinet, raising the Black Liberation flag at the ceremony. A page celebrating notable Black Bostonians can be found on Boston’s website.

The Boston Public Library celebrated Black History Month with a “Black is…” book list, highlighting novels encapsulating the African American experience, and held events with prominent Black Americans such as Ilyasah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X on Feb. 9.

On Joazard’s tour, attendees visited the first public school for African American children in Boston on Beacon Hill, Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment Memorial on Boston Common, and Crispus Attucks’s grave in the Granary Burying Ground.

Walking on the brick sidewalks of Beacon Hill, attendees saw houses of significant Black historical figures such as Colonel George Middleton, who started the African Benevolent Society in 1796, and William Cooper Nell, who fought for racial integration in the 1800s.

Tod Hibbard, an attendee of the tour and a Freedom Trail tour guide himself, said he went on the tour to improve his own tour experiences for people.  

“I wanted to make sure I had a larger perspective on my tour … including Black voices and Black perspectives.” Hibbard deeply enjoyed Joazard’s storytelling and guiding abilities. 

Hibbard said that Joazard did a great job in engaging the crowd with history.

“I think [Joazard is] just brilliant in terms of caring for us and making us feel noticed, seen,” Hibbard said. “The guide had excellent crowd management … kept us in the sun on a cold day.” 

He felt Joazard told “really riveting stories … with such energy, such animation.”

Mariama Joazard, an attendee of the tour who grew up in Brockton, Mass., and Joazard’s sister, said the tour reveals stories that are rarely taught at public schools. 

“When you’re in school, they don’t teach you a lot about specific types of Black history, which can be really difficult growing up,” she said. “I didn’t really know Phillis Wheatley’s name until going on this tour because they didn’t really show me that in school.”

A World Population Review article reported that 20 states prohibit teaching critical race theory, a curriculum aimed at examining how systemic racism is embedded in various elements of American society. Standards for teaching about race differ by state. 

Although students have varying levels of historical knowledge from school, Mariama Joazard feels that experiences like the African American Patriots tour offer unique learning experiences in comparison to school.  

“I really feel like it’s important to go out and see things because I’m more of a visual learner,” Mariama Joazard said. “It’s nice to walk around and see where you live has so much history around you.”