Freedom House

Founded in 1949 by social workers Muriel S. and Otto P. Snowden, Freedom House has served as a haven for communities of color by providing education, technological, and capacity-building programs and services in Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan. From a tiny office in the Old Humboldt Theatre Building, the hard work began fighting for neighborhood improvement, better schools, and establishing harmony and cooperation among different racial, ethnic, and religious groups. Today, Freedom House continues its commitment to equity and civic leadership with a holistic approach to coaching High School and College students ensuring their academic success while providing a safe place for dialogue on social and community issues.

Since 1949, Freedom House has been a leader in programs and services that champion educational equity and economic opportunities for Black and Brown, and immigrant youth throughout our communities. Freedom House sees education as a pathway towards economic opportunities.
Freedom House focuses on college access and post-secondary success with the goal of increasing college graduation rates and career readiness using a holistic youth development approach.

The Freedom House Legacy Project

Freedom House Legacy is an archive project curated by Freedom House scholars during the 2023 Summer Morning Enrichment Program, in collaboration with The Reckonings Project. The archive consists of a collection of articles, fliers, images, testimonies, etc., which all embrace the core history of Freedom House.

Freedom House Legacy Website

Project Leads

Uta Poiger

Professor of History

Together with Kabria Baumgartner and Dan Cohen, Uta G. Poiger leads the Reckonings Project. Her work focuses on new community-engaged frameworks for the humanities, supported by digital technologies. Poiger has held a number of administrative leadership roles at Northeastern.

Dzidzor Azaglo

Community Partnership Coordinator

Dzidzor (Jee-Jaw) is a Ghanian-American folklore, performing artist, author, and curator. Dzidzor's style of call and response has combined traditional storytelling in Afro-folklore and Poetry Slam through a sonic experience. Dzidzor is moved by the responsibility to alarm the power/abundance in the midst of bodies while creating a practice of care and freedom through creativity. Dzidzor is the founder of Black Cotton Club and partners with Grubstreet, ICA Boston, and Boston Public Schools to teach creative empowerment workshops in Boston.

Reckonings Co-Creation Team

Greg Lord

Assistant Director of Design & Program Manager

Greg Lord is a designer and developer with over 15 years of experience in digital humanities research and development. His previous experience includes the University of Maryland's MITH (Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities), Hamilton College's Digital Humanities Initiative (DHi), NASA, and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), having served in roles as a graphic/web designer, software engineer, 3D modeler, and virtual reality developer.

Halima Haruna

Research Assistant, Ph.D. Student in History

Halima Haruna is a first-year PhD student in World History at Northeastern University. Her research interests are at the intersection of the decolonization of knowledge through spiritual practice. Her creative practice begins with cultural theory based on Yoruba socio-politics and expands to connect with lived experiences of Black people, expressed through performance and video. Her work has been shown internationally at Display Gallery, Prague; Narrative Projects, London and the 12th edition of the African Biennale of Photography. She received a MA in Research Architecture from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2018.