Courtney Luciana photo
The Freedom Amistad Schooner raised the Black Lives Matter flag — and in the process drew a link between the Amistad revolt in 1839 and freedom struggles of the modern day.
Crew members, cultural advocates, and city officials gathered at the New Haven Harbor for the flag raising Thursday afternoon aboard the replica of the historic slave ship.
The ship, currently docked at its home port of Long Wharf Pier at 389 Long Wharf Dr., is a recreation of the Spanish schooner La Amistad. On July 2, 1839, 53 Mende captives aboard La Amistad rose up against their Spanish captors while being ferried between Havana and Puerto Principe, Cuba, to be sold into slavery. Led by Sengbe Pieh, the group took control of the ship, which was soon recaptured by the U.S. Navy off the coast of Long Island. The Amistad revolutionaries were later taken to Connecticut and imprisoned in New Haven, where they and a coalition of local, state, and national abolitionists fought years of legal battles to restore their freedom. In 1841, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Mende, whose heroic resistance aboard La Amistad represents one of the great, successful revolts in the history of the international slave trade.
On July 16, 2020, amid an outpouring of nationwide protests over the deaths of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement and broader structural racism, attendees at the BLM flag-raising made links between civil rights history then and now.
Erick Russell, vice-chair of the state Democratic Party and a board director of Discovering Amistad, spoke first. (Discovering Amistad, a nonprofit, provides programming on the ship.)
“We’re here today to raise the Black Lives Matter flag because it’s in essence of what our organization is all about. The organization is about education through the teaching of the legacy of the Amistad and the story that came along with that,” Russell said. “It’s an important message considering the history of this vessel here in New Haven.”
State Rep. Robyn Porter (pictured) pointed out that the strapped circumstances black people are living under is nothing new.
“We’ve got to take a real, hard look at what we’re dealing with before we can undo it. We have to first admit that there’s a problem before we can fix the problem. I think that’s where we continue to get stuck,” Porter said. “We haven’t had the intestinal fortitude to deal with the raw truth of the fact that we’re still enslaved. We’re not free. There is not liberty and justice for all.”
Kimberly Kersey (pictured with her family on the far right), executive director at The Amistad Center for Art & Culture, said the two nonprofits aren’t related but had originally planned joint programming for the fall that is now being pushed back.
“We’re hoping to do some programming around the education of the ship and the importance of the Amistad story being told,” Kersey said. “Our missions are very similar. We promote African-American artists, entertainment, and education. What’s most important is to continue to have the conversations.”
Captain Beth Robinson and her six crew members will travel on the 128-foot ship to Connecticut’s major ports as part of a two-week freedom and justice-themed Summer of Enlightenment program.
Board member Kai Perry (pictured) will be one of the teachers for the online education program. The social justice leadership academy will learn the Amistad history and connect those themes to social justice through discussion and workshops.
“We had 32 final slots available. The grades are sophomores, juniors, and seniors in high school,” Perry said. “This time since it’s virtual due to covid, we actually have students in addition to Connecticut including North Carolina, New York, and Puerto Rico.”
Perry pulls the BLM flag up during the ceremony.
The program will start this coming Monday and will include a virtual tour of the boat for the students. Perry said that if Covid-19 restrictions are slightly lifted by the end of the two weeks, students will be invited to Mystic Seaport to see the boat dockside.
“The first week is all about learning the history and then connecting it to a social justice theme of today. We’ll be exploring identity and having multiple identities. How that higher identities impact how you see the world and how the world sees you. The next day we’ll talk about stereotypes and bias. Implicit bias vs. explicit bias. The next day we start talking about oppression and systemic racism. If you know anything about the Amistad story, it really takes you through those steps,” Perry said. “The second week, the students are required to work together in teams about identifying a social justice issue in their community and finding a way to solve that problem.”
Captain Robinson referred to Perry as the spokesperson for Black Lives Matter on the Discovering Amistad. Perry said one of the reasons she joined in 2003 was because of how few crew members there were of color.
“We’re always looking for educators of color to tell the story,” Robinson said.
Mysti Sothen (at right in photo) started working as a chef on the boat two weeks ago after three years working on tall ships. She and maintenance crew member Katherine Pogue (left) noted the paucity of people of color working in the industry.
“That’s the case with most of the industry. I know maybe three people of color that work in this industry. I think it’s a reflection of society’s problems overall. It’s just circumstance.”