Born: 19 May 1926, United States
Died: 28 August 1995
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Amanda Verdell Averett
The following is republished with permission from the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.
Amanda Houston (1926–1995), a Roxbury activist, founded programs for social change, directed ABCD’s New Careers Program, and taught in Black Studies programs.
Amanda Houston (1926-1995), born Amanda Verdell Averett, received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northeastern University. While a student, she ran an elevator in the Park Square Building and helped the other operators, all Black women, obtain benefits from the building’s owners. She served as shop steward at a local branch of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Houston played an active role in the wave of social and economic initiatives which emerged in the 1960s. Among her achievements, she founded and directed the New Careers Program at ABCD (Action for Boston Community Development) to help women get off welfare and into college, the Homesteaders Neighborhood Association, a tenants and homeowners group in Roxbury, and later served as a program director at Action for Boston Community Development. She also worked at Simmons College and Boston College and taught in their Black Studies programs.