This week for Black History Month, PBHA wants to highlight one of our own alumni and previous Director of Programs, David Dance ’74.

As a student, every Friday night, Dance met with a study group that read and discussed books and articles together. This group began to advocate for more Black centered media and programming on campus, even successfully bringing a MIT film to campus about apartheid in South Africa, an ongoing issue at the time. Through this project, Dance met two law students who had written a briefing to Harvard on why Harvard should divest from the Gulf Oil Company. At the time, the Gulf Oil Company had holdings in South Africa that suppressed the liberation movement. Dance and his study group were passionate about Harvard’s divestment and bringing diverse material to campus. 

During his sophomore year, Dance partnered with another member of his study group, Kevin Mercadel, who was also H.R. Afro president at the time and is a PBHA alum, to organize the Mass Hall occupation.

According to an article from the Harvard Crimson, two dozen students broke into Mass Hall to draw attention to Harvard’s ties to the Gulf Oil Company. Despite being told to leave the premises by police and having power cut off, the students persisted in advocating for this divestment. Students set off fire alarms early in the morning to draw a crowd, and used a loudspeaker to make their demands. Over 100 protestors gathered. The occupation lasted 7 days.

“We feel that Blacks at Harvard are not getting anywhere with petitions and discussions. Petitions and discussions have not moved Harvard except for a few meager actions, so we are adopting direct action, direct tacties,” said Mercadel at a conference held on the first day of the occupation. 

Despite this occupation and many other collective demands for Harvard’s divestment, the university ultimately did not sell their stocks. According to The New York Times, on October of 1972, the Harvard Corporation wrote in a report that selling their stocks would have “no practical effect in advancing the independence of black Angolans”. 

During the summer, Dance and Mercadel continued their work in public service with PBHA through the Columbia Point program (now known as Harvard Point). That summer, Dance and his peers realized that there was only one “Stop&Shop” grocery store in the Harvard Point peninsula for families to buy their groceries. 

“That was the only place where 6 thousand people who lived there at that time could get groceries—for prices that were outrageous,” he said.

Kennneth Reeves, another PBHA alum and past Mayor of Cambridge, ran the Columbia Point program that summer. 

“Ken was part of the student group helping that community,” Dance recalled. “They organized a boycott against Stop & Shop and advocated for those people.”

While reflecting on his impact to the surrounding community, Dance couldn’t help but recall what he had gained. “The communities ultimately had a bigger effect on us,” he said. 

Dance said that the nature of SUP (PBHA’s Summer Urban Program) fostered close-relationships between students and participating families. “That was our reality,” Dance said. “They acted like parents of ours during that time period.” During SUP, Dance said that students lived in the public housing developments. 

“This tended to make it very tight knit. I’m sure it was interesting for them, meeting young people from all over the country,” he said.

Dance’s first year after the boycott was the first time the Columbia Point program was composed of all Black and Puerto Rican staff from Harvard, which he says contributed to the dynamic. “We had kids who had very close relationships with their counselors which turned out to be lifelong connections,” he said. 

After graduating, Dance worked for “Project Free” as an organizer, advocating for anti-violence and job opportunities in Franklin Field and Franklin Hill. “We were trying to work on breaking problems down,” he said. 

As an organizer, Dance rekindled his connection with PBHA. At the time, PBHA had several ongoing programs in Franklin. For a few years, Dance received “remarkable phone calls from students” until he eventually joined PBHA staff as a Director of Programs (DOP) in 2002. 

“That was a unique position for me, being born in Boston,” he said. “It was a great privilege and honor to be able to find a place to work under the PBHA roof and help work on issues faced by my community.” 

With David Dance’ retirement in 2017, his contribution to our PBHA community has left a significant impact on current members of our community and we are forever grateful! His legacy has continued to inspire our directors, volunteers, officers and staff and we will continue to celebrate alumni such as him throughout this month and the rest of this year!