on this week's "bloomberg: big decisions," dan porterfield. dan porterfield, welcome to "bloomberg: big decisions." dan: thank you, david. great to be here. david: you have been described as a leader in ensuring access to high achieving low income students for colleges. take us back to baltimore, maryland. what in the small, young boy of dan porterfield led him to that decision? dan: i grew up in baltimore city in a couple different neighborhoods. one of the neighborhoods, it was my parents, me and my sister, we were pretty much the only white family. and then after my parents divorced, we moved about a mile away, very similar neighborhood. there, there was only white families. and that neighborhood felt like a fine neighborhood. i didn't know it at the time, but it was segregated. eventually integration came to that neighborhood. a family, i believe from africa, moved in, a doctor, his wife, and two little kids. there were a number of people that really greeted them with great hostility and tried to get them to leave, threw tomatoes at their

what in the small, young boy of dan porterfield led him to that decision? dan: i grew up in a couple different neighborhoods. one of the neighborhoods, it was my parents, me and my sister, we were pretty much the only white family. then after my parents divorced, we moved about a mile away, very similar neighborhood. there were only white families. it was a fine neighborhood. i didn't know it at the time but it was segregated. eventually integration came to that neighborhood. a family i believe from africa moved in, a doctor, his wife and two little kids. there were a number of people that really greeted them with great hostility and tried to get them to leave and threw tomatoes on their house or wrote things on the sidewalk. my mom going to night school made friends with this family and went up and brought casserole and said she wanted them to feel welcome. they should belong here. eventually the families that didn't want them there moved out themselves, pretty fast too, within about six months. it became half white and half black and it stabilized that wa

now porterfield is taking on a new challenge is the head of the aspen institute, taking what he haa

dan porterfield went on to become a national leader in education as senior vice president at georgetownf franklin and marshall college in pennsylvania, leading the way in making sure talented low-income students got the same opportunities as others. now porterfield is taking on a new challenge is the head of the aspen institute, taking what he has learned in the field of education and applying it to

. >> so we moved to what is now porterfield. 1940's,920's, 1930's, 1950's, this was the center of the african-american business district. ass district grew african-americans were migrating from the south to the north. we call that the great migration. thousands of african-americans are leaving the south, leaving conditions of jim crow in the south, leaving conditions of sharecropping and tenant farming and looking for jobs in places like ford motor company and other auto factories. but because of property discrimination, they can't own the property everywhere in the city of detroit, but there are certain sections they can. one of them is black bottom, the african-american residential district. the other is paradise valley. . that is the business and entertainment district. from the 1920's to the 1950's, there are 350 black-owned is nessus in the -- businesses in the area or very close. this would have been the center of african-american activity. hotels, restaurants, jazz clubs, stores. all the things that are part of african-american needs and of course culture, it would take place h