The Boston legacies you won't see on the freedom trail
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Jean-Luc Pierite, board president of the North American Indian Center of Boston, at the unveiling of a marker for the 59-year-old institution. Photo: Courtesy of Embrace
An Islamic cultural center, a temple, a zen garden — these are some of the sites being recognized as Boston celebrates the nation's semiquincentennial.
Why it matters: These institutions haven't drawn massive crowds of patriotic tourists, but their legacies paint a picture of the communities that shaped one of the nation's oldest cities.
Catch up quick: The nonprofit Embrace Boston unveiled a marker last year commemorating the 1965 Freedom Rally on the Boston Common as part of the Everyone250 historical monuments and markers initiative.
- The collection of sites has grown to include King's Chapel's Memorial to Enslaved Persons, the Vilna Shul, the North American Indian Center in Jamaica Plain and others.
🇵🇷 The latest: The next plaque commemorates the Puerto Rican enclave surrounding Plaza Betances in the South End, mobilized by the nonprofit Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción.
- It will be unveiled during the annual Festival Betances on Saturday.
Other Everyone250 sites:
📚 Dedication to the Boston Public Schools Desegregation Movement
👧🏻 Barker Center for Children and Families (founder of the Manville School)
⛪️ Union Church, a hub for Black activism in the South End
🏢 United South End Settlements
👩🏾🦱 League of Women for Community Service
⛪️ Peoples Baptist Church, the oldest Black church congregation in New England
- Unveiling: 12 pm, July 26.
👨🏽🏫 Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts
⛪️ Twelfth Baptist Church, the First African Baptist Church of Boston's current home in Roxbury
🕌 Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center
🌱 The Daniel and Marlena Open Space and Community Garden
- Unveiling: 2pm, Aug. 9
🕊️ Louis D. Brown Peace Institute
🏳️🌈 Fenway Health