Boston is one of the most university-dense cities in the country, home to world-renowned institutions. It also has a deep legacy of formally and informally educating historic Black leaders — from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who earned his Ph.D at Boston University, to Malcolm X, who spent his formative years in Roxbury.
Despite this, Boston does not have a Historically Black College or University, or HBCU.
Boston City Councilor Brian Worrell is trying to change that. He’s the lead sponsor of an initiative to bring a satellite HBCU campus to Boston, and joined GBH’s All Things Considered guest host Saraya Wintersmith to discuss the idea on the heels of a hearing last week. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Saraya Wintersmith: Councilor, in your July op-ed in the Dorchester Reporter, you point to the legacy of educating Black children in Boston that began with the Abiel Smith School. You also say in present-day Boston, there’s already Roxbury Community College and the John D. O’Bryant [School of Mathematics and Science] that host a large portion of Black students in Boston, and those institutions deliver some of the best education in Massachusetts.
Given all of that, tell us — why do you think Boston needs an HBCU?
Brian Worrell: I think there are multiple parts to why Boston needs an HBCU. One of the major parts is that this is the mecca of education, and I believe that an HBCU should have a presence. On best of that, we see in [Boston Public Schools] a lot of our Black students struggling, and I believe every investment toward making sure that there’s a pathway, mentorship and representation at the next level for our Boston Public School students will only help increase educational outcomes.
And then, there’s the representation in many of our major industries, whether it’s tech, finance, the medical field, public service or education. HBCUs make up a large share of our Black talent; 40% of Black engineers, 50% of Black doctors and lawyers, 70% of Black dentists — those are the individuals that we want here in Boston, and to be able to plug them into the fields where we, as a Black community, have been underrepresented.
Wintersmith: What’s your response to someone who might say that HBCUs were created for a time when segregation was a legal social norm, and we don’t need them anymore?
Worrell: What we are seeing after the Supreme Court ruling that took away race-based college admissions is that a lot of our leading institutions here in the city of Boston have seen a decline in Black enrollment. So we need to continue to make space and create places of higher learning for our Black students. This is also an opportunity to encourage, or to get more investments into our Boston Public Schools and encourage [students] on a pathway to higher education.
So, [there are] two parts: We have seen since the Supreme Court ruling the decline in Black enrollment in some of our major institutions, but also, this is a tool to help with our Black students here in the city, and also to gain more Black talent.
Wintersmith: There are so many institutions here in Boston for Black talent to consider. How do you think having an HBCU would impact the existing educational landscape? What do you think it would do to schools like your alma mater, Northeastern?
Worrell: What we have seen and heard is that there is a large HBCU alumni presence in the New England area, and one of the other things that we have heard is that people want to make college more affordable.
We believe that this will be a complementary role, because there are so many people already attending HBCUs.This could probably help with the affordability [aspect], because that is one of the major barriers in attending an HBCU — it’s one of the reasons why I did not attend an HBCU, because my parents at the time did not have the means to send me. We believe that bringing it closer to an area where there’s already such an alumni base that attended an HBCU will help with the affordability.
We don’t believe it will play a detrimental role to any institution; this whole initiative is to be complementary to all of the institutions and stakeholders that are educating our students.
Wintersmith: I want to play some tape for you immediately from your hearing. There was some pushback to the idea that Boston lacks an HBCU, given that Roxbury Community College is a predominantly Black institution, and it might be getting overlooked in your push to bring a satellite campus here.
Let’s listen to Roxbury Community College President Jonathan Jefferson.
Jonathan Jefferson [pre-recorded]: Ninety percent of the students who attend Roxbury Community College are students of color. Eighty percent of the students who attend Roxbury Community College are Black, African-American or of African descent. We are your HBCU.
Wintersmith: Councilor, how are you responding to that?
Worrell: Yeah, and this idea of bringing an HBCU presence, a satellite office, was always an open-ended question. We did not have one proposal on what this would look like, and I believe that RCC and all the work that they have done throughout the years should play a critical role in this initiative. What that looks like, we need to continue to discuss and continue to formulate that idea and that proposal.
However, again, this needs to be a complementary role. We need to take a look at the landscape here in the city of Boston when it comes to jobs, and make sure that the programs that we need to get our students in are also reflected in the initiative on bringing the HBCU presence here.
Whether that’s bolstering the programs that are offered at RCC, whether that is creating [Memorandums of Understanding] or articulation agreements with HBCUs that add those programs that could give our students the skills to go into those fields — those are the types of things we’re talking about and looking to explore.
But RCC should — and will — play a role and have a voice in this conversation.
Wintersmith: I want to ask you something a little bit harder immediately. Boston does have a history and a reputation that it’s still contending with. I want to note that there are still people here who are upset about the fact that a federal judge ordered the city to desegregate via busing.
What leads you to believe that Boston could immediately offer the kind of culturally affirming space for learning that HBCUs are known for?
Worrell: I’m going to point to a time before that ruling. We have a history of Black legacy and opportunity, whether it’s leaders like Crispus Attucks, the Abiel Smith School in 1835, we’re talking about Prince Hall [Freemasonry], one of the longest-running fraternities in the country, Phillis Wheatley and Lucy Stone, the legacy of MLK and Malcolm X.
We have a strong Black history here in the city of Boston, and that is what we are looking to amplify and bring more awareness to. We definitely get recognized more for desegregation and the busing movement, but we do have a rich Black history here in Boston.
Wintersmith: Have you had any conversations with any schools that would be willing to partner with Boston to make a satellite campus happen? Are there any schools that you’re looking at?
Worrell: Yes, I’ve had plenty of conversations. I won’t discuss the schools that we’ve had conversations with immediately, just because they’ve been preliminary conversations. But again, we’re taking a look at the schools that will best complement our institutions and help us with what we see in terms of jobs and where we’re underrepresented here in the city of Boston.
So, more on that as this idea continues to develop.
About the Author
