The William Cooper Nell (1816-1874) House, now a private residence, was a boarding home located in 3 Smith Court in the Beacon Hill neighbourhood of Boston, Mass., and is across the street from the former African Meeting House, now the Museum of African American History. Nell, as a young boy was the recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Award for scholastic abilities but because he was black, he was not allowed to attend the award’s event. That incident propelled Nell to dedicate his life to desegregate Boston’s schools, performance halls and railroads. He was also a leader of the black resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act. Aug. 14, 2017

The Abiel Smith School on 46 Joy Street on Beacon Hill now houses the Museum of African American History in Boston, Mass. Founded in 1835, all black children in Boston were assigned to the Smith school, which replaced a basement school in the African Meeting House next door. Aug. 14, 2017

A photographic exhibit of Frederick Douglass at the Museum of African American History in Boston, Mass. Douglass, after escaping from slavery in Maryland, became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining notoriety for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Aug. 14, 2017

More of the Frederick Douglass exhibit at the Museum of African American History in Boston, Mass. Aug. 14, 2017

Sculptor Mary Edmonia Lewis lived and worked in Boston in 1863 at the invitation of Frederick Douglass. Aug. 14, 2017

The houses along Joy street in Boston. ThisThe area around Belknap Street (now Joy Street) in particular became home to more than 1,000 blacks beginning in the mid-1700s. Aug. 14, 2017

This is one of several plaques on buildings along Joy Street (formerly Belknap Street) in Boston, Mass., commemorating the contributions of African-Americans. Aug. 14, 2017

And, here’s another plaque on a buildings along Joy Street (formerly Belknap Street) in Boston, Mass., commemorating the contributions of African-Americans. Aug. 14, 2017

The Freedom Trail walking tour began with the Old State House and Boston Massacre Site in Boston, Mass. Five colonists, including Crispus Attucks, a free black man, were killed by British soldiers on March 5, 1770. The Old State House served as Boston’s City Hall from 1830 to 1841. (Aug. 14, 2017)

A Freedom Trail marker…and my feet selfie…implanted on the sidewalk denoting stops in Boston, Mass. Aug. 14, 2017

The Old South Meeting House was built in 1729 to replace the Cedar Meeting House in Boston, Mass. Here Benjamin Franklin was baptized and where poet Phyllis Wheatley, who was kidnapped from Africa and sold into slavery in Boston, worshipped. Kidnapped from Africa and sold into slavery in Boston, Wheatley, who died around age 31, was the first published African-American female poet. Aug. 14, 2017

The Old City Hall from 1865 to 1969 is now a Ruth Chris Steak House Restaurant, but Boston has become very good at preserving the exterior of its historic buildings. Aug. 14, 2017

The street mosaic outside of the Old City Hall in Boston is a 1983 hopscotch grid to commemorate the original site of the Boston Latin School, the first public school in the US. The school educated many influential politicians and writers, including Benjamin Franklin and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Aug. 14, 2017

The street mosaic outside of the Old City Hall in Boston is a 1983 hopscotch grid to commemorate the original site of the Boston Latin School, the first public school in the U.S. And, the Freedom Trail marker along with the bricked paved line marks the trail. Aug. 14, 2017

A costumed guide at the Old Granary Burying Ground in Boston, Mass., sharing the history of the final resting place for three signers of the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Robert Treat Paine. Paul Revere, known for his famous ride to alert the Patriots of the British march on Lexington and Concord, is also buried here. Aug. 14, 2017

I’m standing by the Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in Boston, Mass. This sculpture, dedicated in 1897, was commissioned to commemorate the most notable Black troops to see combat in the Civil War. William Carney, a soldier who was shot several times in the assault at Fort Wagner in South Carolina, rescued the regiment’s battle flag and became the first Black man to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor. A copy of this sculpture is at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and it became the main reason I would visit the museum when I lived in D.C. (Aug. 14, 2017)

Me at the replicated podium inside the African Meeting House in Boston, Mass., considered the first African-American church in the United States became the gathering place of the anti-slavery movement. Here is where Frederick Douglass gave many speeches. including his impassioned call for blacks to take up arms against the South in the American Civil War. Aug. 14, 2017