Black BC: A History of the Black Experience at Boston College
A project by Black BC: A History of the Black Experience at Boston CollegeBlack 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
Upper Campus, Main Gate –
20 September 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].”…
Walsh Hall – November 1996
4 November 1996 - AHANA council and UGBC co-sponsored a town hall meeting with representatives from BC and BCPD. “Anger flowed and tempers flared last Wednesday night in Walsh's eighth floor lounge as the topics of an emergency town meeting,…
Gasson Hall –
19 March 1970: Students Occupy Gasson
At 6:30am on 19 March 1970, black students occupy Gasson Hall in an effort to dramatize the problems of black students at Boston College. Their main concern was the possible dropping of financial aid of [some…
BC Football Field –
1937: Lou Montgomery (BC ’41) became BC’s first black athlete as a running back for the football team” (Allie Weiskopf, "Ahead of their time," The Heights)
Burns Library - The Robert Morris Collection – "From humble origins to the country's second African American lawyer"
Robert Morris rose from humble origins in Salem, Massachusetts to become a civil rights leader in Boston and the country’s second African American lawyer. He advocated for integrated schools, militias, and public spaces, and supported equal rights…
Devlin Hall –
September 1933 – Casper Augustus Ferguson became Boston College’s first African-American graduate on a hot, overcast afternoon on Alumni Field in June 1937. […] Ferguson commuted to Chestnut Hill by streetcar in the morning, and after the…