Can the NAACP convention inspire a change in Boston’s racist reputation?

Boston is a minority-majority city — most of the city’s population consists of people of color.

And yet the city, which is now hosting the NAACP’s 114th annual convention, continues to grapple with a national perception as a racist city, unfriendly to people of color.

“Boston does have a reputation of not being a very kind city to Black and Brown people,” said State Rep. Bud Williams, a Democrat from Springfield. He’s the chair of the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus and he said part of the group’s mission is to change that reputation.

Hosting the NAACP Convention is meaningful for the city, Williams said.

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Williams recalled the last time the NAACP convention came to Boston in 1982. In those days, the city saw resistance to school desegregation and has grappled with a reputation for being racist ever since.

After a federal judge ruled in 1974 that the Boston School Committee deliberately segregated the city’s schools, thereby creating separate and unequal school systems, a new busing program was initiated. Some 18,000 Black and white students were required to take buses outside of their neighborhoods.

The new busing system caused an uproar in the city and created racial tensions that reverberated for years to come.

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“We’ve come a long way since then but we have a long way to go,” Williams said.

Recently, athletes have been outspoken about their experiences in the city.

Celtics player Jaylen Brown told the New York Times: “I definitely think there’s a group or an amount within the Celtic nation that is extremely toxic and does not want to see athletes use their platform, or they just want you to play basketball and entertain and go home. And that’s a problem to me.”

Basketball superstar LeBron James described Celtics fans more bluntly on his series, The Shop, last year: “They’re racist as f——.”

Williams said sports teams do suffer as a result of Boston’s reputation.

“We miss out on a lot of free agent folks because they don’t want to come to Boston,” Williams said.

Boston, and Massachusetts at large, experienced a surge in white nationalist propaganda last year. In one of the most notable instances, members of the racist Patriot Front group marched in Boston around the 4th of July and allegedly assaulted a Black artist.

At the time, Black leaders called on Boston and state officials to address racism.

The Anti-Defamation League found in a study earlier this year that Massachusetts ranked second in the nation for white nationalist propaganda activity in 2022, only behind Texas.

For Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, a speaker at the convention and a Democrat who represents portions of Boston, said that Boston has made tremendous strides since the last time the NAACP Convention was held there — in 1982 — but that there was still much work to do.

“This year’s NAACP Convention is an historic opportunity for Boston to reintroduce itself to the nation, and it is also an opportunity to educate folks about our city’s difficult past, the progress we’ve made, and the work that remains,” Pressley said in a statement on Friday.

Pressley, who is scheduled to speak Monday at the Juanita Jackson Mitchell Youth Awards at 7 p.m., called attention to disparities and injustices now facing Black people, including the racial wealth gap, police brutality and a maternal morbidity crisis.

“The convention will play a critical role in shaping our agenda for Black folks nationwide, and is also an opportunity for us to celebrate the Black community’s collective power in Boston and beyond,” Pressley wrote. “I’m honored to be participating in it.”

She said to truly change people’s perceptions of Boston, the city would have to undergo transformational policies, including closing the racial wealth gap, investing in affordable housing and homeownership, establishing fare-free transit and addressing structural racism as a public health crisis.

Togetherness and unity are highlighted in the convention’s theme of “thriving together.”

“From our first Black female Vice President, Kamala Harris, to our nation’s youngest mayor, Jaylen Smith, and former Boston Youth and College member Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones, we’ve cultivated a program that truly embodies this year’s theme of thriving together,” said Aba Blankson, the chief of marketing and communications for the NAACP.