Children of the Original Wobblies
Connecticut produced plenty of courageous members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Some of their children and grandchildren are still around, and they have good memories. As Utah Philips said, a long memory is a dangerous weapon…
With Black Lives at Stake, Words Matter
Quiet down, class. It’s time to review some definitions. This time, let’s focus on current events: “Black Lives Matter.” Here’s a phrase that has been incorrectly defined with increasing … Continue reading
Texas Millionaires Booted from a Company Town
Waterbury, Connecticut is a company town, but in 2013 union members and neighborhood activists won their two-year battle to change that. The “Brass City” is not the industrial fortress it … Continue reading
The Gilded Age: Sons of Hartford’s 1%
The boys at the Hartford Wheel Club had a great idea: they would organize a party and dress up like poor people! And so on January 20, 1893 the “Hard … Continue reading
We March with Jesse Jackson to Rebuild America
Hartford and Bridgeport have long been known as the poorest cities in the country, but there is another statistic that completes the poverty picture. At the state’s southern tip is … Continue reading
“Our Mission is Not Violence But Freedom”
On a warm summer day in 1955, fifteen domestic workers– maids, cooks and chauffeurs– packed into a small apartment in a Hartford public housing project. It was a Thursday, the … Continue reading
Theater for the 99%
On stage at Bridgeport’s Park Theater in the fall of 1944 stood “Republico, The Little Mechanical Man.” He was an empty-headed dummy that the stage barker described as “handy, dandy, … Continue reading
On Memorial Day, No Business as Usual
I took this photo with my Instamatic on October 15, 1969. I was in Hartford at the anti-war demonstration known as the Vietnam Moratorium. That day, 90,000 people at protests … Continue reading
Everyday Heroes Fight for Patient Care
If it is true that the test of a society is how well it cares for its most vulnerable people, then Bridgeport’s health care workers can be proud of … Continue reading
“Something to Show for Our Work: The Unemployed Organize
Brainard Field may well be the country’s first municipal airport. Located in a former cow pasture in southeast Hartford, Brainard opened in 1921. The era’s greatest aviators– Amelia Earhart and … Continue reading
Steam Punk History: Low-Tech Storytelling in the Digital Age
Uncovering history is one thing; presenting it effectively is another. Even in the digital age, there are “low tech” methods that can be used to aid greater public understanding of important people, places and events.
The Rebel Girl on May Day
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn celebrated May Day with Connecticut textile workers on May 1, 1912. This little-known speech was a special moment, uniting the radical idealism of the Industrial Workers of the … Continue reading
Fascism in Fashion
Benito Mussolini rose to power in Italy during the 1920s and he is credited with developing modern- day fascism. For many people, the ideology did not carry a negative connotation … Continue reading
Speaking Under an Open Sky: Frederick Douglass in Hartford
The great abolitionist Frederick Douglass had significant ties to Connecticut. He visited Hartford many times, spoke to appreciative crowds, and dined with elected officials. Douglass had his portrait taken by … Continue reading
Young Boot Blacks Struggle to Survive
A story circulated in Hartford toward the end of the 19th century about a young boot black who worked on a steamship. Perhaps he found the competition on dry land … Continue reading
The Teenager Who Saved the Amistad Capitves
James B. Covey was only fourteen years old when Josiah Gibbs found him working on the New York docks. Gibbs was one of the Connecticut abolitionists determined to free the … Continue reading
Puerto Rico, Our Experiment in Colonialism
Puerto Rico is in a severe economic crisis, and Connecticut shares some of the responsibility. After all, we made the island what it is today: a colony. Not a colony in … Continue reading
Refugee Crisis, Then and Now
The good people of Connecticut are terrified that society will be overrun by the dangerous, ignorant foreigners and their strange religion. Politicians fan the flames of prejudice to increase their … Continue reading
Hartford’s City Mother
The small plaque in the south corner of the State Capitol identifies the names of early 20th century Connecticut women who campaigned for the right to vote. One of those … Continue reading
Deeds, Not Words: Emmeline Pankhurst Speaks to Hartford
The British campaign to win the vote for women was led in large measure by Emmeline Pankhurst. She spoke to a Hartford audience in 1913 (see below). Her presentation is … Continue reading
Original Wobbly
I met the daughter of Pierce T. Wetter in August. Pierce was an original Wobbly. He was arrested in 1917 in a nationwide roundup of more than one hundred IWW … Continue reading
Beatrice Longman Breaks the Mold
Connecticut has no shortage of war memorials and statues featuring prominent business and political leaders. The celebration of the state’s ordinary working people, however, is almost nowhere to be found. … Continue reading
Remembering Butch Lewis
One friend of Butch’s called him the Pastor of Hartford’s North End. “A pastor is a shepherd, and everyone came to Butch with their problems.” With other Vietnam vets Butch started the Black Panther Party in Hartford. He never became a politician, never used his reputation for fame.
Kalos Society: Early Gay Liberation
Hartford’s first gay liberation group decided that ‘coming out’ meant direct action and if necessary, confrontation with the police. On September 3, 1971, eleven Kalos Society members were arrested while … Continue reading
Community Survival: Black Panther Programs
On May 1, 1969, Hartford’s Chamber of Commerce flanked Mayor Ann Uccello as she held up a broom on the city hall steps. This photo op for the press was … Continue reading
Another Look at the “Negro Governors”
Were the ceremonial “Negro Elections” a harmless practice, or way to diminish Connecticut’s complicity in slavery?
Rock and Roll vs. Racism
In 1955, the most racially integrated public space in Connecticut might have been the rock & roll concerts at Hartford’s State Theater. Despite the widespread discrimination against African Americans in … Continue reading
“The People are Indestructible:” UE General Strike in Hartford
Pratt & Whitney Machine Tool Company President Charles W. Deeds addressed several hundred embattled scabs and supervisors in the company cafeteria. He told them of his plans to put the … Continue reading
Class Struggle Comics: Winning a Strike!
On the 5th anniversary of their strike victory, District 1199 nursing home workers from Spectrum Healthcare explain what it took to win..
High School Students Teach Elders About the Free Press
Marcus Manselle was a Weaver High senior from Hartford who published the student newspaper The People’s Press. He was first to report that faculty and students began a picketing campaign … Continue reading
Carl Sandburg, People’s Poet
At one time, nationally-acclaimed poet Carl Sandburg was so popular in Connecticut that even his goats made the news. After his death in 1967, some of Sandburg’s herd was sold … Continue reading
Selma, Not So Far Away
Father Leonard Tartaglia was sometimes called Hartford’s “Hoodlum Priest.” Like the 1961 film of the same name, Tartaglia ministered to the city’s poor and disenfranchised. He challenged institutional racism wherever … Continue reading
The Woman in Red
If she hadn’t worn her red dress to the picket line, Amelia Sabich might have lived a normal, quiet life. But then, she would never have inspired thousands of workers–including … Continue reading
The Language of the Unheard
“No Danger of Race Riots in Hartford, Police Officials Say.” It was August 4, 1919. Hartford’s African American ministers feared that the white mob violence raging through dozens of U. … Continue reading
Yanquis or Yankees?
Are we yanquis or yankees? In my small state of Connecticut (pop. 3.5 million), we have been both. From the Dutch word janke, the English translation was popularized by Mark Twain … Continue reading
Confronting Police Violence, from Ferguson to Hartford
“It is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots…I must say that a riot is the language of the unheard.” –Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., … Continue reading
Bonus Veterans: An Army Without Guns
It was a warm Sunday night in Hartford on August 7, 1932. Several dozen men and women–exhausted, dirty, hungry– trudged into the city after a hard trip from Washington DC. … Continue reading
We Irish Are A Working Race
The angry Irish laborers marched from Hartford to East Hartford across the covered bridge that spanned the Connecticut River. They converged at the home of their boss. As a contractor … Continue reading
Jail Sit-Down Strike: Prison Rights Are Human Rights
Instead of returning to their cells for the night, 145 inmates at Hartford’s Seyms Street jail have organized a nonviolent sit down strike. They’re fed up with the poor treatment … Continue reading
Puerto Rican Youth Liberate Their Space
Just after dark, a dozen young Puerto Ricans approach 21 Kennedy Street, an abandoned building near Keney Tower. Within minutes they are inside, establishing the space as a liberated area … Continue reading
Breaking the UPS Race Barrier
One by one the young protestors approach the United Parcel Service (UPS) parking lot on Locust Street. It is May, 14, 1965. In unison, they sit down at the lot’s … Continue reading
Labor History, Family Histories
My grandmother Nellie Grace arrived in Boston from Ireland in 1909. On the ship manifest she was described as a domestic servant. Many people’s relations have come from similarly humble … Continue reading
Gay Pride, Straight Prejudice
Nancy Buckwalter and Tony Norris expected 150 people to show up at the Old State House for their event. Instead, over 300 lesbian, gay and transgender activists spent a hot … Continue reading
Mark Twain: Nation Building at the Point of a Gatling Gun
June 19th marks a significant incident in Connecticut history. Yet no one celebrates it. (No, I don’t mean Juneteenth, which is the African American community’s commemoration of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.) … Continue reading
Hell Hole: The Seyms Street Jail
For more than a century Seyms Street jail housed the criminal and the courageous. At one time or another, Wobblies, civil rights protestors, anti-war activists and Black Panthers all found … Continue reading
aka Jim Pembroke
The Reverend James W.C. Pennington, D.D. had been warmly received in Scotland, had his biography published in England, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Heidelberg University in Germany. But … Continue reading
Isabel Blake, Welfare Warrior
Isabel Blake challenges state legislators to “meet with us and talk things over.” The legislators stay silent. “We don’t bite,” Blake says, “we don’t have much to eat, but we … Continue reading
Secret FBI Files 3: Lessons for Today
How the Phone company and the news media aided FBI spying in Hartford.
Secret FBI Files 2: The Black Panthers’ Work in Hartford
The National Archives released 1,582 pages on the Black Panther Party (BPP) in Hartford on March 6, 2014. Many pages are missing, of course, and many names have been redacted, … Continue reading
New: FBI Files Released on Hartford Black Panthers
Government spying on Hartford residents is not new. It dates back at least to 1919, when police and the U.S. Department of Justice secretly gathered information on–and infiltrated the ranks … Continue reading
