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
On September 3, 1971, eleven Kalos Society members were arrested while protesting at a local gay bar where lesbians were being harassed by the management. The owners of The Park … 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
A cold morning in March, 1849. The angry Irish laborers marched from Hartford to East Hartford across the covered bridge that spanned the Connecticut River. They converged at the home … 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
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
