“We feel that we have a ‘colonial relationship’ with the city of Boston; we feel that the city of Boston has treated us like second-class citizens and we’re fighting for basic rights of citizenship.” Andrew Jones, 1986
On September 14th at 6pm join Epicenter Community at Hawthorne Youth & Community Center, as we go back to 1986, when community organizers Curtis Davis and Andrew Jones had the foresight and wisdom to see that many developers were considering the neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, Jamaica Plain, the South End, and Columbia Point to be the next frontier of development in Boston. What Curtis, Andrew and other leaders such as Mel King and Byron Rushing were fighting for then, we are living the reality of it now as our neighborhoods are becoming gentrified.
You can register for the event here.
Davis and Jones put forth a secession plan called the Greater Roxbury Incorporation Project (GRIP). The plan would have carved a new municipality out of the neighborhoods and that the new city would be named in honor of jailed South African leader Nelson Mandela. Although the proposed municipality did not gain the votes it needed to pass, we are excited to have Dr. Curtis Davis, one of the co-founders of GRIP and part of the design leadership team for the newest Smithsonian Institution, The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), join us.
You can register for the event here.
Dr. Davis will be giving a keynote on “Leadership, Movements and Reflections on Social Change Agency.” After the keynote we will have a brief panel with leaders and artists from then and now. It will be an evening of reflection to learn from the past as we move forward during a time of gentrification in Boston’s black and Latinx communities. We hope you join us for an evening about economic autonomy, self-determination and community control.
You can register for the event here.
You can watch the documentary by WGBH interviewing those involved with the movement such as Gloria Fox, Mel King, and Byron Rushing. You can view Mandela; Our Own City below.
GRIP made both local and national news. Check out some of the headlines from that time:
Boston’s ‘Tale of Two Cities ‘;NEWLN:Minority Neighborhoods Consider A Move To Secede
The Los Angeles Times “Irate Blacks Pushing for Secession in Boston”
The Washington Post “In Boston, a Dream of Independence”
You can register for the event here.
Thank you to our partners:
Hawthorne Youth & Community Center
Northeastern Crossing
Roxbury Historical Society
Transformative Culture Project
Boston’s Racial & Economic Activated Dialogue (BREAD)
*Donations accepted to support the programming of HYCC
