Katherine Wilkins: Following her grandmother’s path to impact

Katherine’s grandmother opened a restaurant in Harvard Square as a Black woman in 1926. No one knows just how the daughter of a woman who was enslaved was able to make that happen nearly 100 years ago, but she did. She believed she was supposed to make a change.

Katherine and her grandmother have that in common.

Katherine is a fourth-generation Bostonian. In her childhood, the white kids next door, who she and her sister played with, told her they had to move because too many Black families were moving in. White people threw rocks at her and her sister while they walked to get french fries in Codman Square.

“Boston, as much as I love this city — and I've seen it grow and change in so many ways — remains a very racist city,” says Katherine, who lives in Brookline’s Brown Family House. “My grandmother was able to do some things that I can't do today. That's not supposed to be the case.”

Katherine has spent her life studying what allowed Black women like her grandmother to be successful and uncovering what is missing now. She went back to school to pursue her master’s degree and wrote a thesis on Boston Public Schools and the METCO program, the nation’s largest voluntary desegregation program, founded in 1966.

She has collected stories of how Boston’s first Black leaders came together to make life better for everyone. Now she is working to uncover her mission in life — and she is not afraid to redefine herself to make an impact.

“My grandmother made it happen. And I'm a part of her, so I've got to be able to find a way to make it happen. And I will,” says Katherine. “I think I have some time left, so I'm looking to make a difference.”