Black BC: A History of the Black Experience at Boston College

Black BC Walking Tour is an interactive tour that allows online and mobile users to discover and explore black BC’s complex history on campus, in Boston, and in the nation. It mines anecdotal and informal resources as well as BC archives to commemorate the presence and contributions of black BC, and to document how this community participates in Boston’s black communities. The site is also a resource for BC students, faculty, staff, alums, and scholars who conduct research on race.

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Random Stories

October 1970 - Black students of Fenwick Hall say that a dorm solely for black students is necessary “to help make this adaption to white society easier,” to have "a haven from ignorant stares and rude behavior,” according to the article. Frank…

April 9, 1968 – One day after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., BC holds a memorial service on Bapst Lawn and cancels classes to encourage students to attend a demonstration from Boston Common to Post Office Square. This event gathers…

September 20 1971 - A white security guard, who previously “permitted cars onto the upper campus to unload students’ possessions, refused entry to a car driven by [black students attempting to deliver food for a Black Talent Program picnic].”…

11 April 2008 – For more than 25 years, Hubert Walters has directed Boston College’s Voices of Imani gospel choir (imani means “faith,” in Swahili) and served as a lecturer in music and African and African diaspora studies. On April 11, before a…

September 1933– Casper Augustus Ferguson, BC ’37, becomes the University’s first black student. “The 1937Sub Turriyearbook suggests Ferguson had at least one friend among the 281 graduates. In a three-sentence biography beneath his portrait, David…

September 1969 - The Internal Racism Project, directed by Assistant Professor of Psychology Dr. Jane Moosbruker, announced plans to work with the Black Forum and the S.D.S. and other campus groups to "confront racism." Using movies and discussion,…

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