A Call to Action

A partnership between the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, the NAACP, and the William Monroe Trotter Institute of UMass Boston.

The State of Black Boston is a call to action, an effort to better understand the causes of racial inequality and disparity in the city of Boston and to collectively formulate strategies for addressing these challenges. It is a tool to assess, measure, and understand the nature of racial inequality among Bostonians.

The State of Black Boston is not only a compilation of data and stories from some of the city's key voices and civic participants about the nature and extent of racial inequality, but also ideas and strategies for resolving continuing racial gaps. More than just a reference document with extensive data depicting Black life in Boston, it will also serve as a means to facilitate community forums to investigate lessons learned with other strategies to overcome racial inequalities. Very importantly, it will act as a mechanism to help organize, leaders, elected officials, philanthropic institutions, and local residents to take action. In other words, the State of Black Boston will help to build a process for bringing the community and other sectors together to revitalize and renew an action agenda that will enable any necessary policy changes or new approaches aimed at resolving racial inequality in Boston. It is the hope of the sponsors that the State of Black Boston will be unveiled at the National Urban League conference in Boston in late July 2011.