2018 Annual Dinner: Grappling with Race and Equity
At Cambridge Community Foundation’s annual dinner on May 8, 2018, long-time resident and WGBH journalist Callie Crossley served as the Master of Ceremonies and introduced Harvard professor Brandon Terry, CCF President Geeta Pradhan, and Chairman of the CCF Board Rick Harriman to a capacity crowd of civically minded residents, who came to support the values of Cambridge and the Foundation. Powerful words were shared, and friendships were formed and renewed. Crossley spoke about how Cambridge, a vibrant and ever-growing community, is becoming increasingly inaccessible for those with less wealth. “We are a city with open arms and offer enviable resources - but the financial challenges of living here continue to grow,” she said, adding that 14% of Cambridge residents and 17% of young people here live in poverty. Reflecting on the 50-year anniversary of Martin Luther King’s untimely slaying on April 4, 1968, Terry discussed the continuing prevalence of glaring racial disparities in economic mobility, as well as ghettoization and racial segregation that plague African American families and communities. “Such enduring inequality represents an assault in the dignity and self-respect of poor people and undermines the very freedoms and civil rights that the Civil Rights Movement fought so valiantly [...]
