Boston City Council declares May 11 George Greenwich Day, honoring Roxbury civil rights legacy

BOSTON — May 6, 2026 — Boston City Council honors Roxbury civil rights family, routes $31 million in funding to committee. At its May 6 meeting, the council passed a formal resolution declaring May 11 George Greenwich Day, recognizing George C. Greenwich, who in 1954 won a Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination case against the Pullman Company ending discriminatory hiring practices seven years before the federal Civil Rights Act. Councillor Tania Fernandes Anderson Culpepper, who led the recognition, presented the signed resolution to George Chip Greenwich, founder of The Greatest Minds, before a full-chamber photograph with the family. The council also referred $3,317,987 in police collective bargaining supplemental appropriations — covering the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society and its Superior Officers Unit, both carrying a 2 percent wage increase — to the Committee on Ways and Means, and sent approximately $27 million in HUD housing grants to the Committee on Housing and Community Development. Councillor Brian Murphy moved to suspend the meeting over 10 unanswered Section 17f oversight orders, some pending more than 50 days, warning that executive non-compliance "weakens the oversight authority of this body" — before withdrawing the motion after Council President Elizabeth Breadon reported that IGR said it was working on the responses.