PORTSMOUTH – Now in its fourth year, the Good Friday Tour of Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail, a partnership between the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire and St. John’s Episcopal Church, will take place virtually Friday April 2, 2021 at noon. Register here.

The Good Friday Tour of selected Trail sites will illuminate 14 stories of the suffering of forgotten Africans, bringing understanding and appreciation. JeriAnne Boggis, executive director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, explains, “This symbolic walk is taken in humility and respect on one of Christianity’s holiest days. By taking up the cross of centuries of suffering endured by our African American friends, neighbors and family it is possible to realize the dream of living united in thought, word and deed. The walk is an act of redemption that the church, once complicit in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and long since in its aftermath, has taken.”

The Most Reverend Michael B. Curry, President Bishop of St. John’s Episcopal Church concurs, “So keep telling the story, keep speaking the truth, keep reclaiming the past until it is redeemed by the creation of a new future. Then all will one day know, as St. Paul said, the joyful liberty of the children of God.”

As Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said, “There is something at the very center of our faith which reminds us that Good Friday may reign for a day, but ultimately it must give way to the triumphant beat of the Easter drums.”

As Bob Marley said:”Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned…” there can be no peace.

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2021 Programming Schedule

Elinor Williams Hooker Tea Talks – A Virtual Series

Claiming Our Place: Blacks in “White Spaces”

Six Sundays February 7 – March 14, 2021 2-4pm

Fourth Annual Good Friday Tour of Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail

In partnership with St. John’s Episcopal

Friday April 2, 2021 noon

Sankofa Guided Walking Tours

Saturdays, May 29 – November 27, 2021

Juneteenth Celebration

Found Lineage: Celebrating African American Roots & Branches

Friday, June 18 – Saturday, June 19, 2021

Community Reading Frederick Douglass

Saturday, July 3, 2021

16th Annual Black New England Conference

Crossing River Jordan: A Spiritual Journey Towards Healing Racial Wounds

October 22 – 23, 2021