Efforts are underway
Efforts to bring Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to downtown San Francisco are now official.
NBC Bay Area reports that San Francisco Mayor London Breed joined city and business leaders on Feb. 2 to announce the San Francisco Human Rights Commission-led initiative, called “Black 2 San Francisco.”
In a statement regarding the effort, Breed highlighted the benefits of HBCUs as well as its overall impact on San Francisco and its residents. In addition to city and business leaders, Black 2 San Francisco will include contributions from the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, and the University of California at San Francisco to bring an HBCU to the city.
“In San Francisco, we are working to build partnerships that strengthen our leadership as a center of education, innovation, and opportunity,” she said. “By bringing HBCUs to our City, we can not only create a connection to empower our next generation of leaders, but we can also contribute to the revitalization of our City.”
The mayor added: “I want to thank all of our private sector supporters, as well as USF, UCSF, and SFSU for their partnership in this work and continued commitment to San Francisco's future.”
News of the Black 2 San Francisco initiative comes amid plans for the commission to host HBCUs this summer, according to NBC Bay Area. For the commission's executive director, Dr. Sheryl Davis, the efforts are "a long time coming" and will open the door for a bright future for all.
“I’m honored and grateful to see this convening coming together today,” Davis said in a statement. “After many years of planning and months of seeding and working to create meaningful partnerships, all the stakeholders are together to explore how we can connect San Francisco to the incredible talent that has historically been cultivated and supported by HBCUs.
“Our local higher education partners have been actively involved and are central to this project. These efforts have been a long time coming from both community conversations to design the Dream Keeper Initiative and recommendations from the Reparations Advisory Committee. I am heartened to see where the work goes from here.”
