Thousands of National Guardsmen gathered in the Goffe Street Armory, weapons of war in hand as they prepared to confront anti-war activists and Black Panther trial protesters on the Green.
But unlike at Kent State and Jackson State just a few days later, in New Haven, that violence didn’t come. A “conspiracy” of town and gown, Black and white, local and national players prevailed. The peace was kept, for the most part.
Fifty-three years later, the Armory — used as the National Guard’s staging ground for the May Day rally of 1970, a potential wellspring for bloodshed on that tumultuous day — was commemorated instead as a city landmark of the civil rights movement.
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Laura Glesby |
Aug 7, 2023 12:40 pm
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Laura Glesby photos
Entrepreneur and stylist Kim Poole browses Noir Vintage & Co.'s back room.
Meanwhile, store owner Evelyn Massey, right, hugs supporters in a burst of emotion.
With the snip of a ribbon, Evelyn Massey opened up a portal through time in the form of a vintage shop styled after a Harlem Renaissance salon, the culmination of a long-simmering dream.
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Eleanor Polak |
Jul 6, 2023 9:10 am
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Eleanor Polak Photos
Original printing of the Declaration of Independence.
Eleanor Polak Photos
Exhibit on Frederick Douglass, William Grimes, and the Declaration of Sentiments at the Beinecke.
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library holds one of 26 known surviving copies of the first printing of the Declaration of Independence. The document, printed by John Dunlap in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, has a single typographical error, an indication that the founders issued it in a hurry to declare independence from England.
On Wednesday, a few dozen New Haveners got to hear the words of that revolutionary broadside read aloud — along with that of Frederick Douglass’s 1852 oration “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” — as part of an annual primary-source-focused tradition to celebrate the 247th anniversary of Independence Day.
Remidy Shareef: White supremacy "is the root cause of all of our problems here in America."
Call out exclusionary suburbs. Stand up for undocumented immigrants. Help boost Black small-business contractors. And always “speak truth to power.”
New Haven’s four Democratic candidates for mayor offered those responses when asked on the debate stage about what they have done and will do to combat systemic racial prejudices that benefit people who are white and harm those who are not.
Dixwell Plaza's planned new ConnCAT Place redevelopment.
A demolition notice outside the Elks' former home at 87 Webster St.
Dixwell Plaza’s redevelopers plan to start knocking down vacant buildings in the mid-century shopping plaza as soon as September — as they move forward with a years-in-the-making effort to build up the heart of New Haven’s historic Black neighborhood.
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Kian Ahmadi |
Jun 19, 2023 12:29 pm
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Kian Ahmadi photo
Drummers Michael Mills and bandmates Brian Jarawa Gray and Paul McGuire on Saturday.
One hundred and fifty eight years ago today, Joseph Sills of the 29th Connecticut Colored Infantry Regiment watched as Major General Gordon Granger proclaimed all enslaved African Americans free in Galveston, Tex.
On Saturday, Sills’s direct descendent, Kelly Mero, helped honor her ancestor and the historic episode of Black freedom he participated in through a Juneteenth celebration she organized in the Dixwell neighborhood.
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Brian Slattery |
Jun 19, 2023 8:40 am
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Brian Slattery photo
Myles Tripp and Elaine Roper — ConnCORP’s director of audience development and vice president of culture and community relations, respectively — were on the stage at ConnCORP Saturday evening hyping up the crowd. The immediate reason was a raffle; the larger reason was the celebration of two events: the holiday of Juneteenth and ConnCORP’s fifth anniversary as an organization.
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Eleanor Polak |
Jun 19, 2023 7:21 am
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Eleanor Polak Photos
Juneteenth parade marchers gather at the Green.
A parade and a panoply of music, speeches, vendors, and community on the Green connected Dixwell and downtown for a celebration of a new national holiday honoring the history of Black freedom.
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Nicole Jefferson |
Apr 28, 2023 2:35 pm
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Contributed photo
LEAP counselors in front of the Howard University bookstore.
The following writeup was submitted by Leadership, Education, Athletics in Partnership Inc. (LEAP) Communications Coordinator Nicole Jefferson, with excerpts from LEAP counselors, about a college tour of D.C. and Georgia recently led by the local youth services nonprofit.
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Brian Slattery |
Apr 27, 2023 9:04 am
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Brian Slattery photos
On San Juan's bustling Calle Elisa Cerra.
In Castor and Raúl Ayala's showroom in Loíza.
San Juan, Puerto Rico — Four men with frame drums gathered in front of the microphones set up on Calle Elisa Cerra. They turned up the volume, hit their instruments hard, and sang, and plena was suddenly rocking the block.
Esquina El Watusi, one of three busy bars at the intersection, turned its music off. The DJ that had been playing pop music among the street vendors sounded far away. And a crowd made a semi-circle to listen, sing along, and cheer.
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Maya McFadden |
Mar 13, 2023 11:26 am
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Maya McFadden photo
Brennan-Rogers fifth-graders with Black history museum owner Jeffrey Fletcher.
Tuskegee Airmen uniforms, Greensboro sit-in chairs, and historic newspaper clippings provided Brennan-Rogers fifth graders with an up-close look at Black history at a museum dedicated to African Americans past and present.
Edward Bouchet, as painted on Henry St. by artist Kwadwo Adae.
Robert Lucas: "My main point is rethinking Eli Whitney."
Should Whitney Avenue hold onto the name of the cotton-gin inventor who played a key role in the expansion of slavery?
Not according to a Yale business student, who’s pointed to the university’s first African American doctorate holder as an alternative namesake for the East Rock corridor.
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Maya McFadden |
Mar 9, 2023 9:04 am
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Maya McFadden Photos
Career office clerk Shirley Love joins school choir in "Lift Every Voice and Sing," performed at Black History assembly and celebration.
Hill Regional Career High School’s auditorium rang like a rolling sea as students lifted their voices to sing the Black National Anthem alongside school staffer Shirley Love, whose voice left the school full of the hope.
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Nadir Salaam |
Mar 2, 2023 1:32 pm
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Paul Bass photo
A plaque honoring the newly named Lucretia's Corner.
The following opinion essay was submitted by Nadir Salaam, who is an activist, educator, father and independent historian. He is a native of New Haven currently residing in Bellevue, Washington. He is the producer and host of the Young Adults Learning Evil podcast, which focuses on the history of systemic oppression in New Haven’s Black community. Contact Nadir at y.a.l.epodcast@gmail.com.
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Maya McFadden |
Mar 2, 2023 9:47 am
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Maya McFadden photo
At Celentano School's final Black History Month celebration of the year.
Eighth-grader Akiellea Gooden honored her Jamaican roots on stage in front of her Celentano School classmates by sharing a quotation from a Black political icon and historical Caribbean compatriot, Marcus Garvey: “A people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”
Ex-State Sen. George Logan, with guitar and in front of picture of Mary McLeod Bethune, at Republican-organized Black History Month event.
George Logan and a handful of fellow local Republican politicos commemorated Black History Month with a live performance of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” — and with a lineup of speakers who paid tribute to the late civil rights icon and informal presidential adviser Mary McLeod Bethune.
The 6 Black Catholics under consideration for sainthood.
Featured speaker and guide Shingai Chigwedere.
There are 11 white Americans — and 0 African Americans — among the 10,000 saints recognized by the Roman Catholic Church.
“Zero Black American saints. Zero Americans-of-African-descent saints,” Shingai Chigwedere told a 20-person audience at Albertus Magnus College. “However you want to word it, there are zero.”
That number may soon change, as the local Catholic university shined a light on the six Black Catholics currently being considered for sainthood.
At Tuesday's online book talk for Revolution in Our Time.
A dive into the history of the Black Panthers once again reverberated loudly into the present — from the Black Lives Matter movement to the backlash against critical race theory to the killing of Tyre Nichols — as educators and community members gathered online to hear award-winning author Kekla Magoon talk about her new book, Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People.
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Kimberly Wipfler |
Jan 27, 2023 3:52 pm
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Kimberly Wiplfer photos
Kolton Harris and film student Joaquín Morales.
At Thursday's BITE kickoff.
“Who would have ever thought I’d be back in here watching a film?” asked Tracey Massey, in a hushed whisper, in the back row of a film screening at the former Stetson Branch library building in the soon-to-be-demolished Dixwell Plaza.
On the projector played “Black Joy,” a musical short film by Kolton Harris, which tells the story of a group of Black students in detention who find pride and celebration in their Blackness through song and dance.
“I came to this library 40 years ago as a child growing up in this neighborhood. It is here where we learned the first stories of Black joy. Here’s where we read books about Martin Luther King Jr., where we heard the first Michael Jackson song, the first Nina Simone song. We learned about Malcolm X. All of those stories generated out of this library.”
“It was joy. It was magic. [Harris] is reminding us of that. It was really just like it is in his film,” said Massey.
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Brian Slattery |
Jan 16, 2023 12:42 pm
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Brian Slattery photo
Hanan Hameen of Dance and Beyond Sunday at New Haven Museum.
Through words, music, and movement, storytellers, drummers, and dancers offered dozens of families a chance to find their place in the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., the broader causes of social justice he dedicated his life to, and the rich culture he came out of.
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Allan Appel |
Jan 16, 2023 10:02 am
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Yale University Office of Public Information.
MLK with Brewster.
When the Independent first reviewed “The Kings at Yale” — an exhibition primarily of photos and letters documenting how back in 1964 Yale University, with Kingman Brewster as president (hence the fun wordplay), granted Martin Luther King Jr. an honorary degree — what caught this reporter’s eye was all the hate mail candidly on display.
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Laura Glesby |
Nov 11, 2022 9:14 am
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Laura Glesby photo
Steve Winter and Ann Garrett Robinson celebrate Lucretia's Corner renaming Thursday.
Four centuries after New Haven’s first recorded Black resident left her mark as an activist and enslaved domestic worker, the corner of Elm and Orange is slated to bear her name.
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Maya McFadden |
Nov 8, 2022 2:25 pm
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Maya McFadden photos
Some of the many guests at Saturday's gala.
Maya McFadden Photos
Links members and supporters gather to celebrate organization's 50th anniversary in 2nd floor ballroom of the New Haven Omni Hotel.
A historic Black female advocacy organization celebrated half a century of sisterhood and service at its first in-person gala since the start of the pandemic.
