Table of Contents
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Archives and Special Collections Finding Aids
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| Collection |
| Title: | Muriel S. and Otto P. Snowden papers |
| Dates: | 1911-1990 (bulk 1947-1985) |
| Call Number: | M17 |
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Historical Note
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As the co-directors of Freedom House from 1949 until their retirement in 1984, the Snowdens were influential leaders in Boston's African American community. Muriel Sutherland Snowden(MSS) (1916-1988) was raised in New Jersey, graduated from Radcliffe College in 1938, and attended The New York School of Social Work from 1943-1945. In 1944 she married Otto P. Snowden and moved to Boston. She was a member of a number of civic organizations and was the Executive Director of the Cambridge Civic Unity Committee prior to co-founding Freedom House. She was a lecturer on race relations and taught community organizing at Simmons College School of Social Work. MSS was also a member of the board of many prominent institutions, including Babson College; Harvard University; the New England Aquarium; Shawmut Bank of Boston; Boston Museum of Science; the Boston Community-Media Committee; Civic Education Foundation, Lincoln Filene Center, Tufts University; the University of Massachusetts; the National Conference of Christians and Jews--New England Region; James Jackson Putnam Children's Center; and the Radcliffe Black Women's Oral History Project. Muriel Snowden represented her community as the first African American to serve on many of these boards.
During the course of her life, Muriel Snowden received numerous honors and awards. These included citations from the national Urban League Fellowship, Radcliffe College, Simmons College, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and the Salvation Army. In 1988 the Boston School Committee voted to rename Copley Square High School in her honor. Muriel Snowden received honorary degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Babson College, Stonehill College, and Boston College. In June 1987, shortly before her death, she received a grant from the MacArthur Foundation.
Otto Phillip Snowden (1914-1995) lived in Boston most of his life. He graduated from Dorchester High School, attended Howard University from 1933-1937 and was a Special graduate student at Boston University School of Social Work. His student activism for civil rights began when he was in middle school and continued throughout his college years. He directed St. Mark Social Center in Roxbury, Massachusetts both before and after serving in World War II. He quit his job as Director to work without pay to found Freedom House. From 1949 through 1984, he co-directed Freedom House with his wife. He was a Commissioner of Boston's Parks and Recreation Department from 1949-1956, and in 1975 he became a Commissioner of the Boston Housing Authority. Otto Snowden was also involved in many professional and civic associations, including the Boston Branch NAACP; Booth Memorial Home of the Salvation Army; Work Incentive Program, Division of Employment Security; Boston City Department of Civil Defense, Disaster Squad; American Red Cross, Boston Chapter; Massachusetts Committee for Jobs Unlimited for Negroes and Other Minorities; Mayor's Committee on Civic Progress (Hynes); Citizens Advisory Committee on Urban Renewal (Collins); and the National Conference of Christians and Jews--New England Region. He was a trustee of Northeastern University from 1978-1995.
Otto Snowden's awards included life-time achievement award from the NAACP, Kiwanis Man of the Year award, Black Advocates for Quality Education award, and the Salvation Army Other award. He received honorary degrees from Northeastern in 1980 and from Boston College and Simmons College in 1984. He was co-recipient of numerous awards with his wife. |
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