Brian Slattery Photo
On Friday morning a display appeared in front of the pedestal that until two days earlier held up the statue of Christopher Columbus in Wooster Square
It was put there shortly after 10 a.m. by Malcolm Welfare, Ricquel Pratt, and Steve Nardini of the Lineage Group. Within minutes of the display appearing, passersby stopped to check it out. There, they learned about William Lanson, a Black engineer and entrepreneur who, in the 19th century, escaped from slavery to become a pioneer in the city’s development.
Welfare (front); Nardini (l.); Pratt (r.); Los Fidel with raised fist.
The sit-in was “a commemoration of … the unknown history we have here,” Welfare said.
Watching the events unfold on Wednesday, when New Haven removed the statue of Columbus, he saw that “a large group of people here who were not happy .… Once the violence and the physicality broke out, I was jarred” with the reminder of “Jim Crow-era” actions. So Welfare was “inspired to do something.”
The art sit-in was about recognizing William Lanson, “the man who laid the architectural groundwork” for Wooster Square and Long Wharf before it became an Italian-American enclave.
Welfare works as a leadership coordinator and technology teacher for New Haven Public Schools and is a member of the Community Advisory Board for the Q House, currently under construction on Dixwell Avenue. He also founded and leads The Lineage Group, a community organization that, along with fellow community group Reva.a.r.t.lution, sponsored Friday’s event.
Welfare posted news of the Art Sit In on Thursday evening, inviting people to “spread the word, fill the space (socially distanced) bring art of all kinds, come dance, come sing, sit and eat.” Calling the violence that broke out before the statue’s removal “horrific,” Welfare announced his solidarity with Nate Blair and Los Fidel, who had confronted those protesting the statue’s removal early in the day.
As one among the sponsors of the event, Welfare wrote that “we celebrate the new energy of what we wish to become William Lanson Square Park.”
Lanson was a runaway slave who, in 19th century New Haven, became a self-taught and innovative engineer and land developer. He built Long Wharf and parts of the Farmington Canal, was an advocate for diversity and inclusion. (Click here for a detailed story about Lanson’s life.)
The city, led by Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison, has been in the process of creating a statue of Lanson, to be unveiled later this year.
“We wish to have a second statue … commissioned by The Amistad Committee, Inc. & paid for by the city placed in the space where the global criminal Christopher Columbus NO LONGER STANDS!” Welfare continued. (A recent opinion piece in the Independent likewise argued for replacing the statue of Columbus with one of Lanson.) Welfare also expressed his wishes that the New Haven police officer “aggressively harassing and roughing up the victims of a violent and angry mob … to be brought to justice” and that “the city pay close attention to building unique and viable relationships with the African American Community especially in the areas such as high level construction businesses and careers, high technical skills with access to job pipeline and job training, and anti-racist education.”
Shortly after posting on Facebook, Welfare said, he got a message from Diane Brown, branch manager of Stetson Library. “I got something for you,” Welfare recalled her saying. Stetson had a timeline display of Lanson and his accomplishments that usually rested in the library. Welfare was welcome to borrow it for his Wooster Square sit in. Welfare took her up on her offer.
“Lanson was about unity — about whites and blacks living together,” Welfare continued on Friday morning.
“As educators, it’s our duty to keep people educated,” said fellow organizer Ricquel Pratt, who also works as a counselor in New Haven’s schools.
Organizer Steve Nardini agreed. The fact that the plaque in Wooster Square “doesn’t mention William Lanson — that’s an issue.” That he didn’t learn about Lanson until last week — “that’s an issue,” he said.
“It’s time to give life,” Welfare continued, about bringing some positivity to Wednesday’s events. He also noted that, Wednesday’s agitators aside, “it feels good to have the support and understanding of the Italian community.”
Blair.
Welfare added that they were also there “to celebrate life and the fact that he’s still alive.” The “he” he was referring to was Nate Blair, who sat a blanket away making tea.
The gathering was a chance for a group of about 20 to talk about the events of the week, the significance of the statue and its removal, and about where to go from here (in above video). It was also a chance for Blair and Los Fidel to reconnect and talk about how each was grateful for the other’s presence during Wednesday’s protests.
Currently unemployed due to the shutdown, Blair took a longer view, that the enforced downtime had given him time to develop “clarity of thought.” He didn’t feel he was alone in this; many people were undergoing the same moment. “You have time to think when you’re not being exploited all the time.”
“It is a complicated history,” he said of the elevation of Columbus to the emblem of a national holiday. For the Italian-American community, it was a move toward “assimilation,” a chance to be included in “the American dream.” Blair perceived it as “the white dream,” something he, as an African-American, was not allowed to participate in. “There’s a sadness to it,” he said.
But he emerged from Wednesday, he said, “physically fine” and “mentally encouraged.” He has lived in the Wooster Square neighborhood for five years and avoided the half of the park with Columbus’s statue in it. “It feels good to have another half of the park to hang out in,” he said.
And if society was going to have a reckoning with its history, “let’s go full history,” he said.
People kept coming by to visit the display as the people gathered broke into a group sing of Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.” “The melting pot never melted,” Fidel said. “All the ingredients are still just floating around in there.”
