Neighbors Turn Out For ​“Dr. Robinson Way”

Dr. Ann Garrett Robinson knows how to advocate for a street corner name. In 2022, she made sure that New Haven’s first known Black resident, Lucretia, would have a place among official city signage.

On Monday, she returned to City Hall to join 20 friends and neighbors in calling for a corner of her own.

Robinson’s alder and Dixwell Avenue neighbor, Ward 21’s Troy Streater, is championing an effort to name the corner of Dixwell and Argyle after the neighborhood stalwart. 

On Monday, the City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) alder committee issued a unanimous favorable recommendation for the approval of ​“Dr. Ann E. Garrett Robinson Way”; the street corner name will go before the full Board of Alders for a final vote in September.

The corner naming effort has received enthusiastic support from Robinson’s former students, longtime friends, and family members both official and unofficial. 

At Monday night’s CSEP meeting, speaker after speaker had signed up to testify in support of the corner name. One friend of Robinson’s, political organizer Cordelia Lewis-Burks, offered words of support from Indiana, by way of Zoom.

They heralded Robinson as a volunteer local historian who herself has made history throughout her 89 years of life.

In a presentation to colleagues, Streater cited Robinson’s accomplishments as a psychologist and the first Black woman to join the Trinity College faculty, one of the first Black women to be a researcher at Yale, and the first Black certified psychological examiner in the New Haven Public Schools system.

He also celebrated her everyday impact as a ​“pillar of our community” — a mentor and neighborhood convener passionate about simple acts of kidness — who has ​“worked to instill a culture of care and mutual respect” in Dixwell and Newhallville.

Robinson’s street corner would be a ​“symbol” of how ​“it is important to be accomplished and accessible,” said Hillhouse Assistant Principal Johnathan Berryman. 

One mentee of Robinson’s, Tomeka Vinston, offered a short history of Robinson’s life in her public testimony.

“She grew up in a segregated Black town in Pitt County, North Carolina,” Vinston said. ​“She was a protected little girl who lived in the library.”

According to Vinston, Robinson grew up in a family of educators and librarians. Her grandparents, once enslaved, ​“purchased a 15-acre farm during the Great Depression, where they grew cotton, sweet potatoes, and pecan trees,” Vinston said. ​“Today, Dr. Robinson is still paying taxes on that property.” 

Meanwhile, City Historian Michael Morand pointed to Robinson’s work to unearth forgotten stories of New Haven’s past, both through her former column in the New Haven Register and through her effort to recognize Lucretia’s contributions to the city.

“She’s the historian’s historian,” said Morand.

When Robinson herself had a chance to address alders she began by handing a Dixwell Avenue-themed bookmark to each of the four alders on the committee. ​“Hello. I don’t know the rules, but I brought you a present!” she said.

Robinson reflected on her writing in the New Haven Register and her effort as a mentor both to students and to young people throughout Dixwell. ​“Our city needed mending, as cities do,” she said. 

“I’m blessed and I’m humbled,” she added. She spoke of a sense of responsibility she would feel if a corner were to bear her name: for ​“those to whom much is given, much is expected.”