‘Black 2 San Francisco': Officials announce plan to bring an HBCU to downtown

San Francisco could see new colleges and universities coming to downtown.

Mayor London Breed on Friday will join city and business leaders to announce new efforts to bring Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, to downtown San Francisco. The initiative is called Black 2 San Francisco and led by the Human Rights Commission.

"In San Francisco, we are working to build partnerships that strengthen our leadership as a center of education, innovation, and opportunity," Mayor London Breed said in a statement. "By bringing HBCUs to our City, we can not only create a connection to empower our next generation of leaders, but we can also contribute to the revitalization of our City. I want to thank all of our private sector supporters, as well as USF, UCSF, and SFSU for their partnership in this work and continued commitment to San Francisco’s future."

The commission will host HBCUs this summer. The University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, and the University of California at San Francisco are participating in the initiative to bring an HBCU to the city.

"I'm honored and grateful to see this convening coming together today," San Francisco Human Rights Commission Executive Director Dr. Sheryl Davis said in a statement. "After many years of planning, and months of seeding and working to create meaningful partnerships, all the stakeholders are together to explore how we can connect San Francisco to the incredible talent that has historically been cultivated and supported by HBCUs. Our local higher education partners have been actively involved and are central to this project. These efforts have been a long time coming from both community conversations to design the Dream Keeper Initiative and recommendations from the Reparations Advisory committee. I am heartened to see where the work goes from here."