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Historic walking tour in Amherst highlights Black, Indigenous families

New England Public Media | By Nirvani Williams
Published June 21, 2022 at 11:03 AM EDT
Anika Lopes, founder of Ancestral Bridges, standing in front of her family's photos displayed in the Ancestral Bridges exhibit at the Amherst History Museum.
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Anika Lopes, founder of Ancestral Bridges, standing in front of her family's photos displayed in the Ancestral Bridges exhibit at the Amherst History Museum.
Anika Lopes / Submitted
Two women from the heritage walking tour observing photos in the Ancestral exhibit at the Amherst History Museum. The exhibit will run until the end of June 2022.
2 of 2  — members from walking tour.jpg
Two women from the heritage walking tour observing photos in the Ancestral exhibit at the Amherst History Museum. The exhibit will run until the end of June 2022.
Anika Lopes / Submitted

A walking tour in Amherst, Massachusetts, featuring historic sites of the town's first Black and Indigenous families kicked off this past weekend in celebration of Juneteenth.

Anika Lopes, founder of the tour, said she wants to connect residents of color with their history. Black residents make up 5% of the population in Amherst while white residents make up 73% of the population, according recent Census data.

"You have young Black youth that walk around Amherst, numerous town buildings and do not see a representation of themselves," Lopes said. "They do not know that there is Black history in Amherst and just exposing them to that immediately is life changing."

Lopes' organization, Ancestral Bridges, has made the Amherst tour available to view virtually on its website.

Lopes said she wanted to launch the tour during Juneteenth weekend because some Black military soldiers, buried in West Cemetery in Amherst, traveled to Texas in 1865 to deliver the order that freed 250,000 enslaved Black people.

Lopes is working on extending the tour beyond Juneteenth weekend.

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New England News Collaborative
Nirvani Williams
Nirvani Williams covers socioeconomic disparities for New England Public Media, joining the news team in June 2021 through Report for America.
See stories by Nirvani Williams

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Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.

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