Bobbie Boyer

Welcome to “How to Act.” A limited-run mini-podcast series produced by the New Mexico Black Education Act Bureau in celebration of Black History Month. Here at H2A we treasure and showcase stories of those who have and continue to enrich the Black educational landscape in New Mexico and beyond. Because Black History isn’t my history or your history…Black History is New Mexico History … and no matter who or where you are, if you are under the sound of this Pod, this history is for you. I’m your host, Hakim Bellamy and this is “How to Act.”

Our guest for this second episode is Mrs. Bobbie Boyer. A modern-day matriarch, Mrs. Boyer is the living legacy of the family that founded the first TWO Black settlements in New Mexico: Blackdom and Vado. After migrating west from Georgia in 1901, the Boyers founded the Blackdom settlement in 1903 and later–after Blackdom was abandoned as a result of drought–founded Vado in 1921. 

Here, Mrs. Boyer shares what it was like to go to school in New Mexico in 1945 or thereabouts…both before and after integration. Proudly matriculated from Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary School, Mrs. Boyer gives a shoutout to her favorite teacher (Principal Grimes) and tells us how becoming the first (and possibly only) Homecoming “Princess” in the history of Gadsden Public Schools started out as a joke…until she messed around and won. 

This podcast is a partnership between the New Mexico Black Education Act Advisory Council and the New Mexico Black Education Act Bureau. Find out more about the New Mexico Black Education Act here https://web.ped.nm.gov/bureaus/student-support-services/black-education-act/