Join your AFSCME sisters and brothers and check out some of the major sites and events of Boston’s African-American, women’s, immigrant, and labor history.
You’ll learn about the role of slavery in Boston’s economic development and Boston’s 54th Regiment of African-American Union soldiers in the Civil War. You’ll encounter women’s rights activists, settlement house reformers, and female garment workers who organized the first women’s trade unions. You’ll get to know some of Boston’s historic neighborhoods — the South End, Chinatown, West End, Beacon Hill, and the North End — and the political struggles over land use and urban renewal. You’ll meet the Irish, Jewish, Italian, Chinese, African-American and Latino workers who built power within their workplaces and communities from the eighteenth century to the present day.
The walk is about 3 miles through downtown Boston. The tour will be conducted by students from the University of Massachusetts History/Labor Studies Department and will occur on Sunday, July 15, noon to 2 p.m.
Tour participants will meet in the lobby of Westin Copley Place at 11:45 a.m. for the five-minute walk to Tremont, Park and Winter Streets to begin the walking tour. Delegates, alternates and guests leaving from the BCEC can board the shuttles (Route 3) to Westin Copley Place to join the tour. Wear comfortable shoes and clothing and bring your own lunch.