All Rev'd Up: The NAACP's Denial Of Boston's Proposed Slave Monument

Black artist Steve Locke said Tuesday, July 16, 2019, that he's withdrawing his proposal for a slave memorial in front of Faneuil Hall after the NAACP objected.

Hannah Uebele is a producer for Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and previously worked as associate producer for Boston Public Radio. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in English and Environmental Studies. She's a proud Delawarean but has found herself saying "wicked" more and more often, so the Bostonian metamorphosis is well underway.Contact: hannah_uebele@wgbh.org

March 02, 2020

Updated August 07, 2023

Reverends Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III joined Boston Public Radio on Monday to discuss artist Steve Locke's struggle with Boston's NAACP branch in displaying his public art.

Locke's proposed artwork featured a bronze plate heated to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit to evoke the presence of Africans brought into slavery through Boston. Locke withdrew his proposal “Auction Block Memorial at Faneuil Hall," in July, after the local branch of the NAACP found fault with the project for not consulting them or the black community.

"Faneuil Hall is everybody's area and I think you have to have something that represents essentially the thoughts and the emotions and not trigger and traumatize people, and I think that was the NAACP's point," said Price.

"The whole idea is that [the NAACP] felt that [the artwork proposal] needed a process, and that they, the NAACP, were left out of the process," Monroe said. "This is the oldest chapter in the country, they're very important, this is public space, they needed to have some sort of dialogue and process going so that it really reflects the will and wishes of the people.

Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist and the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail and a visiting researcher in the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program at Boston University School of Theology.

Price is professor of worship, church & culture and founding executive director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Together they host the All Rev’d Up podcast, produced by WGBH.