Gwen Newton addressed the African-American historical question. Newton won a Board of Aldermen seat from Newhallville in 1969. She was one of “The Magnificent Seven,” elected as aldermen on a slate allied with Henry “Hank” Parker, who was running to challenge the Democratic Party machine and try to become New Haven’s first black mayor. (New Haven elected its first black mayor, John Daniels, 20 years later.)
“They weren’t used to blacks having their own minds,” Newton said of party leaders at the time. “They had a few [African-Americans in office]; they were part of the establishment. They never asked our opinion.
“We fought each other behind the door. When we came out, we were unified,” she recalled of the Magnificent Seven, of which she was the only female.
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