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
Mayor Mark Twain
Could Mark Twain have become mayor of Hartford? Apparently, the Knights of Labor thought so. This 19th century labor union considered running “Mayor Clemens” in March of 1886. The notion … Continue reading
Shoeleather Quiz #2
1. What was the last film to play at the Meadows Drive-In Theater before it closed? 2. Which one of Hartford’s original founders made a woman “confess” to being a … Continue reading
The Fugitive and the Hero
The steamship Hero made its way up the Connecticut River. It was October 1, 1850; two men with different purposes were aboard the vessel. The first was a runaway slave, … Continue reading
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire: Lessons from a Tragedy
Sol Bidek’s family lived in a tenement on Market Street in Hartford. They waited several days for word from New York. Finally, they got the news: their sister was safe. … Continue reading
Baseball Crazy
No ESPN, no sports radio, no internet scores. In 1913, all Hartford baseball fans had was the Megaphone Man. He stood in front of the old Hartford Courant building on … Continue reading
More Hidden History of the Wobblies
A Shoeleather History of the Wobblies: Stories of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in Connecticut is a new book that documents the organizing efforts of this unique labor group … Continue reading
No Part too Great or too Small
I think Bobby Sands is smiling. In 1981, Bobby was an Irish prisoner in a British jail. As a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), he led a hunger … Continue reading
Roberto Clemente, ¡Presente!
Why would a baseball star who died more than forty years ago have such a great impact on Hartford people? Maybe because Roberto Clemente was much more than a ball … Continue reading
Shoeleather Quiz # 1
1. From where did Mayor George Athanson broadcast his overnight radio show? 2. Which famous person spoke in Hartford? (a) John Brown; (b) Emma Goldman; (c) Abraham Lincoln; (c) Elizabeth … Continue reading
The Gandhi Strike
It’s been more than 75 years since the legendary Flint sit-down strike by Michigan autoworkers, a watershed event in American labor history. The 44 day strike had a powerful impact … Continue reading
We Won’t Starve Quietly
At the height of the Great Depression, thousands of Hartford people were thrown out of work. Like the rest of the country, the 1929 stock market crash meant disaster for … Continue reading
Jay Gould: Octopus of the Wires
“I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half,” said Jay Gould, probably the most ruthless “robber baron” of the 19th century. It was not … Continue reading
They fought for me and I fought for them
When he was about eight years old, Ernie DeMaio came home after school– more than once– with a black eye. He had been wearing the button his mother gave him, … Continue reading
No Room at the Inn
Ethel Thompson and her family reached Hartford after midnight. She entered the Hotel Essex on Main Street and went to the front desk to check in. The night clerk got … Continue reading
Why the Union Vote Counts
Will the union vote count on election day? For the last one hundred years it has, in Hartford and around the country. And every politician knows it, even if the … Continue reading
Heroes & Anti-Heroes
For more than a year, the prison authorities would not allow Avelino Gonzalez-Claudio proper medical treatment. Then, a month before he returned to a Hartford court on February 5, 2010, … Continue reading
No Business as Usual: Vietnam War
On a cool and sunny fall day in Hartford, ten thousand people jammed into Bushnell Park with one goal: to stop the war in Vietnam. As the single largest protest … Continue reading
Ralph Allen: “He have more than courage”
As 3,000 people left Connecticut by car, bus, and train to join the historic March on Washington, Hartford college student Ralph Allen was spending his 20th day in a Georgia … Continue reading
Hometown Nukes & Poison Gas
I went online today to see if I could buy a Gatling gun. It turns out there are at least five websites where the weapon can be purchased. One of … Continue reading
The Newsies Strike Back
The front page photo was startling, even to people who had lived in the city all their lives. On May 4, 1909, the Hartford Evening Post showed an alley just … Continue reading
Strange Fruit
What was the murder of Trayvon Martin if not a lynching? The definition of the word is clear: “an extrajudicial execution… in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to … Continue reading
Connecticut’s Jim Crow Law
A dozen farmworkers entered Windsor Town Hall, quietly following Erwyn Glanz, the local constable who had given them a ride. Most likely, this was the first time the men had … Continue reading
This Land is Your Land
In October 1944, weekend entertainment options for Hartford residents were limited. A family might take in the fall foliage, or just as likely, gather around the radio and tune in … Continue reading
Union Brew
In 1901, all Hartford saloons sold a glass of beer for a nickel. But if a thirsty man bought the same beer from a shop without a union card hanging … Continue reading
Hartford Sex Trade: Prostitutes and Politics
Ann Dunn and Caroline McElroy were unceremoniously escorted to the police station where they were charged with prostitution. The arrest of the two Hartford women came in the summer of … Continue reading
Playing ’til Sundown
Mahlon “Duck” Duckett and John “Mule” Miles returned to Hartford in 2007. Duck and Mule are surviving members of a proud but shrinking club: baseball players who were members of … Continue reading
John Brown & the Negro in the Dark
Samson Easton entered the State House through a door someone had left open. He and another man carried a lantern and yards of black cloth. Easton climbed to the cupola … Continue reading
Peace Work with a Union Label
“While this war was on, you appropriated billions for the war. How much are you willing to appropriate for peace and for jobs?” When Michael Rosenberg challenged U.S. government priorities … Continue reading
Red Emma
One of the most dangerous women in America spoke in Hartford on February 12, 1913. “Red Emma” Goldman talked about love and marriage, a subject that was as revolutionary as … Continue reading
Mechanic Street Obituary
Hartford’s Mechanic Street passed away in the early months of 2003; the exact date is not known. It was located near the city’s riverfront for well over 120 years. While … Continue reading
A Feeling of Solidarity
It was March, 1912. Emily Pierson and her sister suffragists were on a statewide tour of Connecticut, putting up posters, distributing handbills, speaking wherever they could find a space. Pierson’s … Continue reading
Lincoln: “There is a Strike!”
March, 1860. Abraham Lincoln considers an invitation to Hartford, determined to widen his appeal as a possible presidential candidate. “Do not fail, for the sake of Connecticut,” his anxious host … Continue reading
Solidarity and 75 cents
It started out as a dispute over seventy-five cents and ended up as a test of wills between hundreds of Hartford construction workers and their employer. Decades before working people … Continue reading
Indian Summer in the City
Hartford’s Wild West fans and kids of all ages had to make a hard choice one hot summer day in 1899. They could travel to the park on Albany Avenue … Continue reading
Hobo Life
On the Big Rock Candy Mountain /All the cops have wooden legs/ The bulldogs all have rubber teeth/ And the hens lay soft boiled eggs… The original hobo’s version of this … Continue reading
The Shameful Legacy of Sam Colt
Some Hartford people are pretty desperate for heroes. What other explanation could there be for the recent attempts to glorify gunmaker Samuel Colt? His 19th century factory is now a … Continue reading
Two, Three, Many Rosa Parks
Sixty-one years ago, Rosa Parks was removed from a city bus by a Montgomery, Alabama police officer. Her arrest sparked a successful 381-day bus boycott by African Americans in that … Continue reading
Factory Girls Strike for Their Health
The factory owner demanded sixty hours a week from the young women employed at the Government Envelope Works on South Ann Street. But apparently this was not enough for the … Continue reading
Standing Your Ground
On the cold morning of November 29, 1976, snow and ice rained down on a small group crowded in the doorway of 18 Congress Street, the one-way street between Wethersfield … Continue reading
