Alfreda Harris

{{Short description|Former basketball coach (born 1938)}}

{{infobox person

| name = Alfreda Ramsey Harris

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1938}}

}}

Alfreda Ramsey Harris is a former women's college basketball coach.

Harris is the founder and former administrative coordinator of the Shelburne Recreation Center. Before her administrative career, Harris was the former women's basketball coach at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Roxbury Community College, and Emerson College.{{Cite web |date=2024-02-26 |title=Alfreda Harris — Boston’s First Lady of Basketball - The Sports Museum |url=https://www.sportsmuseum.org/curators-corner/alfreda-harris-bostons-first-lady-of-basketball/ |access-date=2025-07-08 |website=www.sportsmuseum.org |language=en-US}} Harris was also the longest serving member on the Boston School Committee.{{Cite web |title=Alfreda Harris – Lower Roxbury Black History Project |url=https://roxbury.library.northeastern.edu/alfreda-harris/ |access-date=2025-07-08 |language=en-US}}

Harris was born in 1938 and raised in Roxbury as the youngest of five children.{{Cite web |title=Lower Roxbury Black History Project |url=https://roxbury.library.northeastern.edu/item/neu:rx9184058/ |access-date=2025-07-08 |language=en-US}} She graduated from high school in 1955.

Harris served as the deputy commissioner of Parks and Recreation in the Boston Parks Department.{{Cite web |date=2024-03-18 |title=Alfreda Harris {{!}} Boston.gov |url=https://www.boston.gov/departments/womens-advancement/alfreda-harris |access-date=2025-07-08 |website=www.boston.gov |language=en}} Harris founded the SAT preparation program in Boston public schools and the Reebok Educational Athletic Partnership that provides community programs for students.{{Cite web |title=Alfreda Harris – The Bay State Banner |url=https://baystatebanner.com/2010/08/03/alfreda-harris/ |access-date=2025-07-08 |website=baystatebanner.com}}

Harris has been recognized with the Mayor's African American Life Time Award. She was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012. She was the recipient of Boston Municipal Research Bureau's Henry L. Shattuck Award for public service.{{Cite web |title=Alfreda Harris (2011) - UMass Boston Athletics Hall of Fame |url=https://beaconsathletics.com/honors/umass-boston-athletics-hall-of-fame/alfreda-harris/82 |access-date=2025-07-08 |website=UMass Boston |language=en}} In 2023, she was recognized as one of "Boston’s most admired, beloved, and successful Black Women leaders" by the Black Women Lead project.{{Cite web |title=Black Women Lead |url=http://www.greatergrovehall.org/black-women-lead/ |access-date=2024-10-24 |website=Greater Grove Hall Main Streets |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Sullivan |first=Mike |date=2023-10-04 |title=Portraits along Blue Hill Avenue honor Boston's Black women leaders |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/portraits-honor-boston-black-women-leaders-roxbury/ |access-date=2024-10-24 |website=CBS Boston |language=en-US}}{{Cite book |last=Gaskin |first=Ed |title=Black Women Lead: Boston's Most Admired, Beloved, and Iconic Leaders, 1700 - Present |date=10 April 2025 |publisher=Independently published |isbn=979-8317465209 |language=en}}