Four years after Connecticut’s General Assembly officially apologized for slavery, Toni Harp read that apology aloud to the great-great granddaughter of Charlotte McClee.
McClee, who was born into slavery in South Carolina during that institution’s last days in this country, became a midwife as an adult. She lived to 111.
Her great-great granddaughter, Stella Antley, met McClee before she died. Today Antley lives in East Hartford. She came to New Haven City Hall Thursday afternoon to receive a framed copy of a 2009 Connecticut proclamation apologizing for slavery.
New Haven state Sen. Toni Harp, who is currently running for the Democratic mayoral nomination, presented the framed copy of the four-year-old proclamation to Antley. The ceremony was officially billed as a state legislative event, not a campaign event.
Harp said it’s important for people to know the history of slavery, including the fact that the institution existed here in Connecticut, not just in the South. Click on the video above to watch her and Hartford state Rep. Kenneth Green (the proclamation’s co-author) read the proclamation aloud Thursday afternoon before presenting it to Antley. It includes a series of “whereas” clauses that touch on our state’s complicity in slavery. (It also includes an amendment that states that the official apology may not be used as a basis to seek legal reparations.)
“We know we’ve come a long way” since the days of slavery, Harp said at the ceremony. “We know we still have a long way to go” to tackle racial disparities in health care, the education achievement gap, and homelessness.
Paul Bass Photo
Before the event in the City Hall atrium, Harp met Antley outside in front of the statue commemorating the Amistad slave revolt …
… while African drummers kept the beat.