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Working Toward Community is Our Full-time Focus: Muriel Snowden, Black Power, and the Freedom House, Roxbury, MA

THIS ESSAY explores the transition from civil rights protest to black power protest in Boston through the example of Muriel Snowden and her organization, the Freedom House. Muriel Snowden and her husband Otto created Freedom House in 1949 as a community center dedicated to improving the black middle class area of Roxbury, MA. The Snowdens originally conceived of the Freedom House as a community center designed to foster interracial cooperation and community development. Freedom House reached the zenith of its popularity and influence in the 1950s owing to its prominent role in Boston's civil rights movement. By the 1960s, however, the complex dynamics of urban decay, unemployment, and overcrowding challenged Freedom House's moderate approach to race relations and the Snowdens' commitment to integration. Increasing numbers of black Bostonians turned to more radical measures and methods, including those called for by black power, to achieve greater access to community resources. Historians have typically characterized Muriel Snowden and Freedom House as steadfast supporters of moderate protest and integrationist methods. However, a closer look reveals a more complex story of political fluidity, in which Muriel Snowden and Freedom House openly embraced black power rhetoric, tactics, and goals. Scholars of the civil rights era have called for increased attention to local struggles in order to assess fully the scope and success of the black power movement. Yet few have examined local civil rights organizations that explored black power protest. Even fewer