When my twin niece and nephew visited Boston, we did the requisite Greater Boston tour—duck boat, Boston Common, subway, Harvard Square, Faneuil Hall. I also took them on a Black Heritage Trail tour tracing the history of Black Bostonians on Beacon Hill. They were especially enthralled—as I was— by the story of Lewis Hayden.
Hayden fled slavery, escaping to freedom via the Underground Railroad to Detroit and later Canada. He was a leader in Boston’s vibrant abolitionist movement, and made his 66 Phillips Street home part of the same Underground Railroad that freed him. There, he and his wife Harriet protected an estimated 100 self-emancipated blacks. The National Park Ranger who was our tour guide told us any slaver who tried to storm his Beacon Hill residence was met by a defiant Hayden. Heavily armed, reportedly with kegs of gunpowder embedded in his porch steps, he would emerge carrying lit sticks of dynamite, warning, “You can leave here in peace, or leave here in pieces.” No slave catchers dared enter his property, and those he sheltered felt safe. It was a refuge; a sanctuary.
I’ve been thinking about the ordinary people who, throughout history, have provided sanctuary for those who would be persecuted. For example, we’re still learning the names and true stories of the many who put themselves at great risk to protect the Jews from the Nazis. The new film ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’ reveals the authentic harrowing tale of a Polish zookeeper and his wife, who hid hundreds of Jewish people from the Warsaw Ghetto in their home and the zoo grounds. They offered a refuge; a sanctuary.
These days the word ‘sanctuary’ has taken on a charged political meaning with so-called sanctuary cities under fire as shelters for undocumented immigrants in danger of deportation. The politics may be new, but the idea of sanctuary cities is old—traced back to the Old Testament. Now the Trump administration is threatening to take away federal funding for these self-designated communities. New England law enforcement could potentially lose $7 million in grants.
Many are infuriated that people in the country illegally in the first place are sheltered by volunteers. I understand the anger, even the fears of some who believe sanctuary cities safeguard violent criminals. Immigration experts say, however, people born in the U.S. commit more crimes than undocumented immigrants.
But, I know the idea of sanctuary resonates at a gut level. Legally and practically, we can’t pick and choose laws we follow, but emotionally, sometimes, it just feels wrong not to. It must have felt wrong to abolitionist Lewis Hayden and the Polish zookeeper and his wife, who both broke the law by harboring escaping slaves and hunted Jewish citizens. In the absence of comprehensive immigration policy, my gut tells me the least we can offer is refuge and sanctuary.
