Boston City Council Hears Public Testimony on Proposal for HBCU Satellite Campus

BOSTON -- July 15, 2026, Boston City Council holds first public hearing on proposal to bring an HBCU satellite campus to the city. The Education Committee, chaired by At-Large Councilor Henry Santana and convened by co-sponsor District 4 Councilor Brian Worrell, gathered more than a dozen in-person and virtual testifiers on Docket 1283, an order introduced with Council President Ruthie Louijeune after Black student enrollment at Boston-area universities dropped sharply following the 2023 Supreme Court affirmative action ruling, from 9 percent to 3 percent at Boston University and from 15 percent to 5 percent at MIT. The most consequential testimony came from Roxbury Community College President Dr. Jonathan Jefferson, a Morehouse College and Cornell alumnus, who announced that RCC will sign an articulation agreement Friday with Johnson C. Smith University that includes "exploring ways to bring a satellite campus of Johnson C. Smith to Roxbury Community College," and argued that RCC, where 80 percent of students are Black or of African descent, is already the region's de facto HBCU. Supporters cited Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation projections that closing racial education gaps could generate $20 billion in tax revenue for the Commonwealth over a decade; skeptics, including several HBCU alumni, questioned whether Boston's racial climate and any satellite arrangement could replicate the cultural core of the HBCU experience.