METCO students explore Boston’s ‘equity’ history

METCO’s Boston Education Activism Tour (B.E.A.T.) students gathered February 1 for the first day of their history storytelling internship in which they are meeting each Saturday to develop a neighborhood tour highlighting the people, places, and events that shaped educational equity in Boston neighborhoods. The tours will be offered in May. From left, Jabari Murphy (Roslindale & Natick High School); Imani Rather (Roxbury & Newton North High School); Ivette Melendez, Engagement Coordinator, METCO HQ; Tamira English (Roslindale & Wayland High School); Rhone Charles (Dorchester & Lexington High School); Kendel Yancey (Mattapan & Newton South High School) Kayla Simpson (Mattapan & Wayland High School); Miolany Martinez (Dorchester & Wayland High School). Not shown is Samone Lumley (Dorchester & Wellesley High School).

A group of student interns from METCO (The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity) are in the process of developing a historical neighborhood tour called B.E.A.T. (Boston Education Activism Tour) that highlights the people, places, and events that shaped educational equity in Boston neighborhoods.

The internship, which will conclude with a series of tours beginning in May, is an initiative from the voluntary school desegregation program meant to uncover the history of activism for education and equality in the city, mainly through research into “the struggles that aren’t in the history books.”

In addition to giving tours themselves, students will present their findings to city and suburban students and teachers this spring. 

“This is a ground-breaking, history-making initiative,” said METCO President & CEO Milly Arbaje-Thomas. “These young people are truly pioneering scholars, researching the people, places and events that shaped educational equity in the neighborhoods where they live. Boston is famed far and wide for its history, but these young people are illuminating a new facet of that heritage.”

So far the students’ research process has included watching excerpts from Eyes on the Prize, an award-winning civil rights documentary; meeting with guides from the National Park Service to explore the story of Roberts vs. the City of Boston, the 1850 court case seeking to end racial discrimination in Boston Public Schools; and exploring archives at institutions like Northeastern University, UMass Boston, and Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library at Harvard to learn about community organizing, government policy, and everyday experiences recorded first-hand.

Also, visiting the newly renovated Dillaway-Thomas House and Roxbury Heritage State Park to learn about Roxbury’s role in the American Revolution and its role as a 20th century hub of African-American life in Boston, with curator Leonard Lee sharing his story as a METCO alumnus of Lexington High during the busing conflicts of the 1970s; meeting with Lee Teitel, founding director of Reimagining Integration: The Diverse & Equitable Schools (RIDES) Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; and seeing Detroit Red, the celebrated play depicting Malcolm X’s early years in Boston and participating in a post event discussion group.

Also, meeting with Santander Bank employees to discuss how Boston’s economy is tied to housing, education, transportation, and business opportunities, as well as the devastating role of redlining in excluding residents of color from economic success; and interviewing former METCO executive director Dr. Jean McGuire to learn more about the organization’s history and how it has been shaped by the experience of integration.

The B.E.A.T. model is inspired by the MYTOWN program, which ran in Boston throughout the 1990s, and has been further developed through a project at MIT called “Hacking the Archive.”


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