POLICY, PLACE, and POWER in an evolving city: BOSTON’S RACIAL EQUITY HISTORY PROJECT

History is everywhere in Boston. Every neighborhood, street corner, and building embodies the people, communities that have occupied those spaces previously. The history of Boston’s systemic racism and communities’ acts of community building, activism and resistance are baked into both our understanding of our city, as well as its physical geography. 

This timeline represents policies, events, and projects to the map and timeline that describe flashpoints, battlegrounds, and structures of inequity in the City of Boston.

• BATTLEGROUNDS: Places where communities and institutions collide over resources, spaces, and neighborhood visions. ie. Tent City, The Southwest Corridor, Villa Victoria, The West End.
• FLASHPOINTS: Trigger events that exposes inequity and leads the city to a better understanding of itself. ie. School Desegregation, the Henry
  Louis Gates arrest, the Charles Stuart Case.
• STRUCTURES OF INEQUITY: Government and private sector policies and practices that are racially biased. ie. Chinese Exclusion Act, Redlining, Urban Renewal.

PROJECT GOALS

• Our goal is to illustrate. To identify histories of racial injustice and celebrate communities’ acts of social resilience
  through community involvement and activism that moved spaces and institutions and policies toward justice and equity.
• Our goal is also to learn. The combination of policies and citizen actions over time define our city and our current state
  equity/inequality. What are the key elements in each campaign or event that have made forward momentum toward
  racial equity successful?
• Our goal is also to apply. What are the equity projects you are involved in that define Boston’s current social
  resilience? Are there elements missing in your current constellation of support? Help create a foundation for new insight as
  we assess current and future projects.