Why is Boston hosting an HBCU Classic with CashApp/Visa, MeetBoston, and ESSENCE? Because Boston is sacred ground and more than deserves a new narrative.
Before there was a United States, there was a Black man, Crispus Attucks, who gave his life on Boston soil so that a nation could be born. His blood baptized the American Revolution. This city has always held a contradiction in tension: a cradle of liberty, and yet a place where liberty often felt elusive for people who looked like me. And still, we showed up. We fought. We built. And we endured.
It was here that the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment marched proud, Black, and ready to give their lives not just for the Union, but for the soul of a country that had not yet recognized their full humanity. During the Civil War, their charge at Fort Wagner wasn’t just military. It was moral. And it started here.
Just off the coast of Boston, in Martha’s Vineyard, Black families found refuge — one of the first places in early America where we could own land, build homes, and create legacy. We raised generations under salt air and equity. We carved space — not just to survive, but to thrive…