Boston’s Complex Relationship With Race

When U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley took the stage at the NAACP convention last weekend, she said first-time visitors may wonder: “Are there any Black folks in Boston? Let this moment be a resounding and decisive yes.”

Why it matters: Decades after a federal judge made Boston desegregate schools through busing, and even as the majority-minority city has gained many political and business leaders of color, the Hub remains known as one of the country’s most racist cities.

Driving the news: NAACP and city leaders tried to counter that narrative during the convention by elevating Black-owned businesses, producing displays of local Black luminaries and hosting a tour of majority-Black Boston neighborhoods — despite the event’s location in the majority-white Seaport.

The big picture: Boston gets a bad rap partly thanks to high-profile and recurring instances of overt racism involving rival sports teams, tourists and residents of color.

• Just last year, a group of white supremacists marched through Boston and allegedly assaulted a Black artist.

Meanwhile, the city’s tourism hubs in Back Bay, downtown and the Seaport remain majority white — evidence of the lingering effects of redlining.

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{snip} Boston has made progress — largely thanks to generations of Black and brown residents pushing for change.

• The anti-Black violence that plagued Boston during the busing crisis is rare nowadays.
• And its halls of power are more diverse. Today Boston is home to many high-profile Black political leaders — like Pressley and former Mayor Kim Janey — as well as business leaders like Harvard University President Claudine Gay and Fed President Susan Collins.
• Mayor Michelle Wu, an Asian American woman and the first elected mayor of color, has ushered in a cohort of racially and ethnically diverse city staff.

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