Having been a taxi driver long before he taught English at Boston College, Henry Blackwell offered­ encouragement to students who had not seen their own potential, and he inspired them to beat the odds like he did.

“It was so striking that he was the only full-time professor of color at the time,” said Marc Onion, a former student of Dr. Blackwell, who was the first African-American faculty member in BC’s English department. “It was relieving to be so represented in the faculty.”