A report card released Sunday by the NAACP Boston Branch gives Boston's mayor, in the midst of a reelection campaign, low grades on multiple issues regarding communities of color.
Mayor Marty Walsh did not receive a grade higher than a C overall in any of the four areas on which the NAACP's investigation focused. He got C's in education and staffing diversity, and he got D's in economic development and public safety.
Each category gave grades for effort and results in multiple subcategories. Particularly scathing were the F's the administration received for results in staffing diversity in the Boston Fire Department (C for effort), recruitment and retention of diverse teachers (C for effort), implementation of a body camera program for the Boston Police Department (D for effort) and management of the city's Minority Business Enterprises program (B for effort).
"As the oldest chartered branch of the oldest civil rights advocacy organization in the nation, we must speak boldly and honestly about the challenges plaguing communities of color in the City of Boston, and be thoughtful about the work it will take to move us forward," NAACP Boston President Tanisha Sullivan in a statement. "While some of the data provided to us are disappointing, there are also bright spots, so it is our hope that the report card will serve as a guidepost for our collective work ahead."
Vice President Segun Idowu, the manager of the report card project, added that the organization is "hopeful that the mayor and his team will receive this report as the friendly critique that it is and not dismiss it."
Speaking with NBC Boston Sunday, Walsh did not dispute the grades, instead saying his administration would take that critique into consideration.
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"We take this report — don't look at it as a criticism, look at it as a way to buid upon," Walsh said. "I think that's what I have to do as mayor."
The organization told NBC Boston that it is non-partisan and is not endorsing Walsh's opponent in the mayoral race, City Councilor Tito Jackson.
