Ceremony Celebrates ​“Geneva Pollock Way”

Geneva Pollock showed up.

She showed up for the three generations of students she taught English to at Jackie Robinson Middle School; for the neighbors she met on her Newhallville door-knocking tours; for anyone she heard had lost a loved one and was grieving. 

On a brisk, grey morning, 125 people showed up to honor the legacy of Pollock, who died in May 2020 at 76 years old, with a street corner renaming. 

The four-foot-nine dynamo who grew up picking cotton in Alabama went on to become ​“a teacher, a ward co-chair, an usher, a mother and grandmother, a friend, my friend, and so much more,” said Claudine Wilkins-Chambers, as she waited for the street renaming ceremony to begin. ​“She did so much for so many of us.”

That corner renaming ceremony took place on Sunday.

Last November, the Board of Alders unanimously voted to rename the corner of Thompson Street and Shelton Avenue ​“Geneva Pollock Way.”

“Certain teachers leave an everlasting impression on you and she was one of them,” said her former student, Newhallville/Dixwell/Prospect Hill Alder Troy Streater, who spent much of his re-election campaign last summer stumping for signatures to have the street named after her. ​“She didn’t play any games. She wanted us to learn, to have respect for each other, to make something of our lives. I think I am the man I am today because of her.” 

For Steve Winter, who stepped down as Prospect Hill/Newhallville/Dixwell alder in December 2022 to become the city’s climate czar, the former ward co-chair ​“was a wonderful neighbor and a real mentor to me when I was getting started as an alder,” he said. ​“She taught me that people in this neighborhood, you gotta go out and check in with them.”

Her daughter Muntega Belton recalled her fierce loyalty to her neighborhood. ​“When people asked, ​‘How come you live in Newhallville?’ she said, ​‘I could buy a house anywhere I want to, but I worship in this neighborhood, I work in this neighborhood, and I’m going to live in this neighborhood,’” she said.

For Dyamond Myers, Pollock’s granddaughter, ​“it was about grace. She taught me always to have grace and compassion for others because you never know what other people are going through,” she said, amid the chirping of birds. ​“When people drive by and see her name, we hope they will be encouraged and uplifted to carry out her passionate, caring, and selfless ways.” 

Of the various ministries she served over her 50 years at Community Baptist Church, Senior Pastor Philippe E.C. Andal said his favorite was as his church nurse, an honorary position that involves caring for a person’s spirit as well as their physical well-being. ​“She would make sure I had what was needed, and she would bring along things for my comfort like handkerchiefs and peppermints and tea,” he said. 

“She was the head usher at Community Baptist, but she was known as New Haven’s usher because she served all churches throughout the city and also the state,” he said. ​“Anytime there was a funeral, anywhere, you’d call her and she’d have her white usher outfit on, and she’d be there, comforting grieving families.” 

Cheryl Atkinson said she grew up in Newhallville and raised her family and grandchildren there. ​“Geneva was a big part of everything, the school, the church, the community,” she said, amid a few stray raindrops in the cool air. ​“I miss her because no matter what I needed her to do for me, she was always there.”

At the conclusion of Sunday’s ceremony, a group of childhood friends congregated on the corner of Shelton and Thompson where they had grown up with Pollock’s daughter Muntega. Among them was Nancy Jordan, a student in Pollock’s eighth-grade class who would go on to serve under her former teacher on the usher board. ​“She was strict, but also very positive and encouraging, even as I got older,” she said. ​“You just felt like she saw you, and when she saw you, you mattered.”

By then, the countdown for the unveiling was beginning. 

There was a problem. The covering on the sign wouldn’t come entirely off. ​“We gotta get that down,” said someone, later identified as Belton’s cousin Barbara Mincey. ​“Maybe the wind will blow it,” suggested Kaprice Miller, Belton’s friend. ​“Alright now,” someone else called out when Milton Johnson, a family friend, produced a tree branch and coaxed it off. The crowd cheered. 

“That’s Newhallville style,” said Pastor Aaron Moody, a cousin of Pollock’s.

Another of Pollock’s relatives, Andrea Downer, a city Board of Education member, stood at a remove, observing the festivities. 

“I’m part of a legacy of service in Newhallville that goes back to my great grandfather Bishop Austin Atkinson,” she said, referring to the pastor of Pitts Chapel from 1942 to 1974. He has his own corner named for him, as do her great aunts Mattie Atkinson Darden and Mother Mary Etta Atkinson Joyner, and her cousin General Bishop Elijah Davis, Jr.

“Seeing it makes me proud,” she said, regarding the newly unveiled sign among the trees budding on Shelton Avenue. ​“It makes me want to keep it going.”