Star wing for the Boston Celtics Jaylen Brown has a history of advocating for the use of his position as an NBA player to further education as a way to aid underprivileged groups and individuals. Since joining the NBA in 2016, he has done things like give TED Talks, collaborate with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Program and MIT’s Media Lab, and speak at Harvard.
Since the Celtics picked Brown third overall in that year’s draught, Brown has been interested in the areas in Boston where the battle against structural racism and other kinds of unfairness meets possibilities for education.
The Celtics star made a point of getting in touch with Jean McGuire to learn more about her initiatives to advance education in the greater Boston area after learning that the civil rights pioneer and local education advocate had been the target of a vicious attack during one of her regular walks in Franklin Park.
While Boston’s public schools were being desegregated, McGuire became the first woman to be elected to a position on the Boston School Committee in 1981.
She was a founding member and executive director of the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) from 1973 to 2016.
In a recent interview with Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe, Brown stated, “I just hung out for probably an hour and a half, two hours, just chatting about education.
Just talking about her previous and present experiences in the city of Boston, the gentrification that is now taking place in her area, her opinions on the METCO programme, all these other issues, and her voting habits.
He continued, “I’m incredibly thankful that she let me into her house and I can’t wait to spend some more time with her and see what I can learn and contribute to the causes we share.
The Cal alumnus said, “It was a terrific night. It was incredible. She and the things she’s accomplished in her career in education and civil rights are people I didn’t know before.
Brown said he came across her tale while seeking for a hobby his grandfather may like. “I thought she’d be a terrific person to go and spend some time with,” he said.
I was looking for things my grandfather could do, whether they were social gatherings for his age group.
Instead, he connected with a like-minded individual who he might learn from and even work with.
