1960s Hill Organizer Gets His Due

Six decades after leading a grassroots movement for racial, educational, and housing justice in the Hill while battling New Haven’s political leaders, Fred Harris returned to City Hall — to be recognized as a hometown hero.

One by one on Friday afternoon, friends, family, and community figures gave speeches celebrating Harris’s work at the formal opening of a community history exhibit titled ​“Voices of Resilience: Fred Harris, the Hill Parents Association, and the Power of Community Organizing.” 

Friday’s exhibit unveiling at City Hall was organized by the Hill North Community Management Team and Hill Fest Planning Committee, and was put together in part by New Haveners Sophie Edelstein and Dr. Pamela Monk Kelley.

Among the speakers at Friday’s ceremony were New Haven educator Marcella Monk Flake, retired educator and Board of Education Secretary Edward Joyner, and Arts and Ideas Festival Associate Director Of Education & Community Impact Shamain McAllister.

The ceremony was followed by an evening reception at the New Haven Museum and, on Saturday, the 11th Hill Neighborhood Festival.

As speaker after speaker attested to, and as described in the exhibition put on display at City Hall on Friday, Harris, now 85 years old, has a longstanding history of work in the Elm City and service to the Hill neighborhood. 

In 1965, Harris and other parents at the former Prince Street School created the Hill Parents Association (HPA), a grassroots group that called attention to issues such as poor housing, unemployment, and rundown schools.

Harris and other HPA organizers mounted the leading challenge to New Haven Mayor Richard C. Lee’s Urban Renewal programs, which displaced Black and brown and working-class residents in favor of clearing ​“slums” and building wide-laned roads to try to attract suburban commuters back to the city. 

As historian Lizabeth Cohen wrote in a recent book about the era, the HPA’s advocacy work spanned everything from making sure students’ restrooms had enough toilet paper, to fighting for improved treatment by the police and higher-quality housing and public parks, to giving Hill residents a greater voice in New Haven’s redevelopment and anti-poverty programs.

His activism didn’t stop there: Harris ran for a seat in the Connecticut General Assembly in 1966, where he advocated for policies addressing pollution, environmental degradation, housing affordability, and other pressing issues affecting low-income communities of color.

In 1969, Harris became the special assistant to the director of the Connecticut Mental Health Center and aided in the establishment of the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center in 1968. 

Since then, Harris has moved to Detroit, where he founded New Risen Christ Ministries International and began practicing ministry.

During the ceremony, Harris was awarded the Humanitarian Award by Scot X. Esdaile, President of the CT NAACP State Conference and National Board Member, and a mayoral proclamation by Mayor Justin Elicker.

“We give Mr. Fred Harris the Humanitarian Award in recognition of your steadfast service in the areas of civil rights, health care, and religious affairs in The Hill Section, all throughout New Haven, all throughout the state of Connecticut, and all throughout the United States of America.” Esdaile read aloud. ​“Your time, your dedication, and your service will never be forgotten.”

For Shamay Ampadu, granddaughter of Fred Harris, the award ceremony was nothing less than ​“breathtaking.”

“Our family took a lot of hits. My grandfather worked hard and he deserves everything he’s getting,” the 39-year-old said, her eyes tearing up. 

While Harris and his family received backlash while she was growing up, Ampadu said that that made her resilient and proud of her roots. She said she grew up hearing Black Panther chants, but she has also seen the appreciation of his work throughout New Haven. 

The earliest recollection she has of community appreciation of her grandfather’s work was when she was a student at High School in The Community in the late ​’90s. It was there that her class was doing a research project alongside Yale students on May Day. May Day refers to the demonstrations on May 1, 1970, where protesters gathered on the New Haven Green to rally in support of the Black Panthers during the murder trial of Panther Alex Rackley by other Panther members.

Instantly she became the star of the show, with her classmates asking to interview her grandfather and speak to someone who had gone through the primary events of history that they were studying.

“I’ll never forget when everyone said, ​‘Fred Harris is your grandfather?’ ​‘Can we interview him?’ ​‘He’s alive?’” she said. ​“So I am beyond elated that my grandfather has this moment.”

Harris’ nephew, retired US Department of Defense worker Domingo S. Lobo III, also spoke at Friday’s ceremony. Born and raised in New Haven, Lobo has been watching the city’s evolution from afar since leaving in 1982 to work with the military. Now in Maryland, Lobo catches up with New Haven through periodic visits and knew he needed to come back to see his uncle take home gold. 

“A lot of times when I come home, it’s for a funeral, you know, or something that’s not happy,” he said. ​“This was an opportunity where I could come back, and it was something happy.”

Lobo said that New Haven’s condition has changed with the city’s relationship with Yale slowly improving, and he believes in the longevity of Harris’ work. 

“There’s an old saying that goes, ​‘Old soldiers never die. They just fade away.’ So my Uncle Fred is an old soldier, you know, he just fades away. And what that means is we’re still here. We ain’t going anywhere. We’re just in the background.”

Among the crowd watching excitedly was Harris’ grandson, Day’Shawn Lyons. Lyons, 29, said the ceremony has given him another perspective of his grandfather’s long standing career in advocacy. 

“When we ask him about these times in his life, he speaks on it, but it’s always another life, another time ago,” he said. ​“But to hear the entire community come together, speak about him … I heard people say he was the greatest person they’ve met in his life. I’ve never heard people talk about him like that!”

Lyons’ attributed his community activism and civic engagement to his grandfather, saying that he first started to become active while attending college at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. There he ran for and won ​“Mr. Black MSU,” a scholarship competition hosted by the Black Students’ Alliance to promote positive role models.

“I spoke on my grandfather during that time because he’s such an inspiration, and he made me do the things that I do today,” he said. 

When it was finally time for Harris to take the mic, his message was simple, as he stood firm in his principles of camaraderie and advocacy.

“You got to realize that the fight is not over,” he said. ​“As long as you’re breathing, you got to speak, you got to get together, you got to meet, you got to organize against the giant that is destroying your community.”

Click on the video below to watch a recent interview with Harris on WNHH’s ​“LoveBabz LoveTalk” radio show with host Babz Rawls-Ivy.