Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice

Reading Frederick Douglass Together

Our annual event on the Boston Common, a participatory reading of Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” – this year live on Zoom | July 2 at noon.

Decarceration & Community: COVID 19 and Beyond

An all-Black panel on working to end incarceration, during the pandemic and in a lasting way.

Webinar held June 11th

Peeling Back the Mask

Holding Harvard Accountable to Communities of Color in the Age of COVID-19

Webinar held April 21st

FILED: 14 Public Health Experts Advocate for Releasing People from Jails & Prisons

We’re honored to represent a group of 14 public health experts as amici curiae to support a petition filed by the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (MACDL), and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLUM) to reduce the number of people who are incarcerated in the Commonwealth’s jails, prisons, and houses of correction.

Our Year in Review

An interactive portrait of CHHIRJ’s programmatic work in 2019

We're still here, but our future is in doubt.

In this season of giving, please support our work for racial justice at the Houston Institute.

With your support, we can continue to carry out timely policy research; connect scholars to practitioners and community leaders; host free public events; and mentor students to be the next generation of changemakers.

Amicus Brief with NAACP LDF

We urge the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to determine the police seizure in this case from the perspective of a reasonable Black teenager. The experience of being policed as a young Black male in Roxbury affects whether he would feel “free to leave” when confronted by the police.

Charles Hamilton Houston Institute

Our long-term goal is to ensure that every member of our society enjoys equal access to the opportunities, responsibilities, and privileges of membership in the United States.

Houston / Marshall Plan

Our nation’s communities of color have been devastated by decades of disinvestment. How do we rebuild?