The Story of Black Housing in Boston

Graphic by the Association for the Study of African American Life & History (ASALH).

The year 2026 marks a monumental milestone in Black History: a century of formal Black History commemorations. Since 1926, when the call was first made to weave Black narratives into the fabric of American identity, this month has served as both a sanctuary for memory and a catalyst for progress. As we celebrate “A Century of Black History Commemorations” at Breaktime, we honor the visionaries who refused to let their stories be erased – particularly those who paved the way for Black homeownership in Boston. To fully commemorate this century of progress, we must understand the systemic hurdles overcome and the work that remains to ensure the next hundred years are defined by equity.

The history of Black excellence in Boston stretches back long before the first formal commemoration in 1926. In 1670, Zipporah Potter purchased a home in Boston’s North End, making her the first African American to own land in the city of Boston. Inheriting money from her father, Potter secured her property during a time when few women or African Americans owned land in the American Colonies. Her purchase wasn't just a transaction; it was a landmark act of belonging.

Potter’s home was the first of many owned by Black families north of the Boston Common. Boston’s New Guinea neighborhood – one of the first free Black communities in the American colonies — served as a bastion of Black independence for nearly 200 years. During this era, Black Bostonians fought to become the architects of their own future: they served in the American Revolution, published world-renowned poetry, and established deep community roots, even under the shadow of state-sanctioned enslavement.

In the years that followed, Boston progressed alongside the young country toward emancipation. Prominent Black and White abolitionists collaborated in Boston. One of the first Black Units of the US Military, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, employed soldiers recruited by Frederick Douglass and others in Boston’s African Meeting House. 

After the Civil War, the West End became a center for Black intellectual movements. This neighborhood hosted Boston’s first Black school, its first employed Boston Police Department officer, and the first National Conference for Colored Women in America. These milestones were the result of years of intentional community organizing. Even as segregation intensified in the 19th and 20th centuries, Black Bostonians acted as the vanguard of the city’s civic soul. Leaders like Mel King and the National Urban League didn't just react to marginalization; they pioneered economic reparations and social reforms that redefined what justice looked like in a modern American city.

As we look back over the last 100 years of Black History in Boston, we commemorate a continued refusal to let discriminatory housing practices define the limits of Black existence. In 1978, the Boston branch of the NAACP successfully sued the Boston Housing Authority, a victory that reclaimed the right to safe, integrated housing. But the momentum didn’t stop at the courtroom doors; it moved directly into the hands of the community.

In 1984, the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) made history by becoming the first and only neighborhood group in the country to win the power of “eminent domain.” Instead of outside developers deciding the fate of their land, residents in Roxbury and Dorchester took control, turning hundreds of vacant lots into a vibrant, affordable urban village. That same year, Doris Bunte – a former public housing resident herself – was appointed to lead the Boston Housing Authority, becoming the first Black woman to do so. Under her leadership, the city began the complex, necessary work of actually integrating the homes that the courts had ordered open years prior.

However, the commemoration of this century also requires us to look at the work still unfinished. We see the echoes of the past in Boston’s statistics today:

• The Wealth Gap: A 2015 Federal Reserve study highlighted a median net worth of $247,500 for White households compared to just $8 for non-immigrant Black households.

• Mortgage Access: Historically, Black and Hispanic applicants in Boston have been 60% more likely to be turned down for mortgages than White applicants with similar profiles.

Anti-Black racism in our housing and schools is not a stagnant vestige of the past, but a challenge we are still actively overcoming. Bunte, Massachusetts’s first Black woman to serve in the state legislature, was elected only 53 years ago. Many Bostonians have parents and grandparents that attended Boston’s public schools before courts ordered desegregation in 1974. Today, nearly 90% of Boston Public School students identify as people of color, and nearly 80% identify as low-income. Celebrating Black history also requires understanding the lingering effects of decades-old policies and their ongoing efforts to limit Black excellence in education and the workforce.

Boston’s Black History is our history, and it’s our job to do better, joining Black leaders and movements in their push toward justice, equality, and repair. As we close this first century of commemoration, let’s resolve to make the next hundred years defined not by the barriers we faced, but by the equity we built together.