A university tries to take on the social problems that surround it

Sep 3rd 2016 | BALTIMORE | From the print edition

BISHOP DOUGLAS MILES of Koinonia Baptist Church, in Baltimore, used to be embarrassed to be a Johns Hopkins alumnus. A girl once stopped talking to him when she found out where he studied. Other residents recall being told by their elders to run past Johns Hopkins in case they were kidnapped by the research hospital for experiments. The university did not help by reneging on promises in the 1950s and 1960s to build new housing for the city. Hundreds of mostly black residents (Baltimore is 63% black) were displaced when the university hospital expanded. The new development was reserved for university staff and students, and then fenced off so that locals could no longer walk on the streets where they once lived. The university became an island and, until fairly recently, its students were advised not to go into certain neighbourhoods. Read more here