Delores Freeman-Clybourn
We took them to the Philadelphia Museum and there were just amazed and though they were in New York when they saw the big buildings and all … so at the end of the summer we knew that it was a success and knew we just had to continue
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Born in Camden, New Jersey, Delores Freeman-Clybourn has been a resident of Chester since 1953. Her father, a construction worker, provided his seven children with a home in the Ruth L. Bennett development. The family attended church at Bethany Baptist, where Delores sang in the choir and participated in plays. Delores attended Booker T. Washington elementary, Frederick Douglass Junior High, and Chester High School. After graduating high school, she worked at a convalescent home and later at the candy counter at Chester’s Woolworth’s. She also worked at the Owen Institutes and started her own printing business.
In 2001, after her husband tragically passed in a construction accident, Delores founded the Freeman Cultural Arts Center. She sought to bring her life-long interest in the arts to her community, teaming up with local artists to teach art to Chester youth. The Cultural Arts Center closed in 2001, but Delores continues to serve as director of the NIA Center, a non-profit organization she founded in 2004. The NIA Center sponsors after-school and summer programming for youth.
Interviewed by Elena Smith in March, 2009