I received a distinct honor this past February. It started three years ago when I was a guest presenter in The Division of Scholarly Integrity and Research Compliance’s Investigator Series at Virginia Tech. This office manages the Institutional (Research) Review Board (IRB), among other activities.
This Investigator Series is a means of sharing ethical considerations that investigators make during the design, conduct, and dissemination of their research. In the process of my discussion, the staff of The Division of Scholarly Integrity and Research Compliance learned about my participation long ago in a project that aimed to ensure the protection of Black human subjects used in research in Boston.
They were stunned to learn for the first time about the Community Research Review Committee (CRRC) and its early “IRB work.” The (CRRC) was a project of the Boston Black United Front, which had previously resisted so-called urban renewal in Boston. Specifically, in the 1960s, they had successfully blocked the building of a highway through the Black community of Roxbury.
I am eager to discuss the CRRC because of its historical significance and because it is an example of some of the concrete activities of some of us in the Black Power movement.
During the Black Power era, in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Black United Front organizations formed in many American cities, with the Black United Front in Boston undoubtedly being one of the strongest. Virtually every Black organization belonged. I knew no group that did not claim membership—from the mildest to the most militant.
A lifelong activist, Chuck Turner founded the Boston Black United Front (BBUF). In the Spring of 1970, a group of Harvard University graduate students became concerned about the treatment of Black human subjects in a research project led by a Harvard professor.
These students came to Turner and BBUF after an unsatisfactory meeting with the professor. Of course, the University had no mechanism to channel their concerns. Consequently, the BBUF organized a group of people to examine the issue. This group, organized that year as the Community Research Review Committee, provided a critical report of this professor and his work, virtually stopping the project as the community withdrew its support. CRRC reviewed over 40 research projects during its first three years.
The first roster of the CRRC included a sociologist, a psychologist, a lawyer, a psychiatrist, two social workers, a schoolteacher, a minister, two students, and four non-professionals. It was not until 1979 that we had a federal policy for protecting human subjects, now known as The Common Rule.
I entered graduate school in the Sociology Department at Boston University in 1971. My fellowship required me to do a research project each summer. As I prepared to conduct the survey research for my first project, James Teele, my advisor, had me submit the proposal to the CRRC, which approved it.
The CRRC published a list of requirements for research involving the Black community, but the most important was the following:
All research grant proposals that intend to use Black subjects and facilities in the Black Community are subject to review and approval by the CRRC before any such research may begin and are subject to continuing approval by this Committee.
Reports by the CRRC declared that the Boston CRRC’s continued existence demonstrated that the Boston Black community could methodically and consistently develop a mechanism for self-determination.
It noted that the CRRC does not oppose research. However, the CRRC did oppose any research, Black or White, that exploits Black people or meets only the needs of the study and white institutions.
CRRC had other objectives, including acting as a community “watchdog.” It also tried to establish a national network of research review committees. Regarding that objective, it sent reports to the federal government suggesting they require universities to have such research review boards.
I joined the CRRC in 1972 as a Black Unitarian Universalist Caucus representative and was chair for two years, 1973-1975.
When my colleagues in the Division of Scholarly Integrity and Research Compliance learned about this history, they interviewed me at length. They requested that I donate my papers related to my work with the CRRC to the Virginia Tech Archives, which I did.
They edited the two-hour videotaped interview with me down to 25 minutes and presented it at a session of the 2024 annual meeting of the Association of Practical and Professional Ethics in February. I was honored to go along to answer questions, and there were many.
You can access the CRRC video online at The Community Research Review Committee: A Predecessor to The Common Rule and the IRB – Virginia Tech – Video (vt.edu)